The Best Field Trip Ever
by Fanfiction Reviewer Man
Summary: Dante, an amateur thief from a dysfunctional family is given a strange cube that sends him into the world of his favourite video game, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. After teaming up with everyone's favourite hero, Dante begins the hardest yet funniest 7 year time travel journey of his life. (Adventure Comedy)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Paradox Key

**Note: ****_Much of this story is based on the manga version of Ocarina of Time_**

I have always looked up to my older brother. To me, my brother was probably the smartest person that I knew. Although he was 8 years older than me, he treated me like his equal, and never got mad at me.

My brother was a very nice guy, he would always teach me things and hang out with me whenever I didn't have anyone else to be with. He loved me, and I loved him. Our parents were never around, so I guess it made sense that we developed the kind of bond that we had.

When I was 7 years old, my brother began taking part in minor illegal activities. We weren't well off, and my parents were always complaining about their lack of funds. In order to help everyone out, my brother decided to begin stealing.

He never got caught. I don't know if it was just beginner's luck, or if he was just naturally gifted, but whenever he would go out, he would always come home with wallets or stolen bills. As the years went by, my brother would take me along with him, and teach me how to pickpocket people in the streets.

I enjoyed spending time with him, and didn't see this as something bad. He would always tell me that this was to help out our family, that a few missing wallets wouldn't cause anyone too much harm. I believed him, and attentively payed attention to him whenever he would describe his technique.

When I was 10 years old, the family fractured, and my brother took me away from my parents to go live with our uncle. I don't really remember what happen, or why we were taken away, probably because I've repressed the memory. The only thing that I do remember is that the blindness in my right eye was the reason my brother took me away. It was only after we began living with my uncle that I began wearing an eye patch.

When we were living with my uncle, my brother and I were enrolled in a few martial arts classes as we went to school. My uncle was a part of a martial arts club, and was eager to get me and my brother enrolled.

I was never really good at fighting with my hands or grappling, but the second a weapon was put into my hands, I was able to hold my own against the other students. Although my right eye gave me trouble, I was quickly able to adjust to the handicap and learned how to defend my right side. No one was surprised when I only started attending Kendo and Bojutsu classes.

During this time, my brother decided to raise the stakes when it came to his thievery. He fashioned himself a mask, and made a "tool kit" which consisted of many different kinds of lock picks.

Out of all of our possessions, the mask was probably the most intriguing thing. My brother told me that he wanted it to look intimidating, scary even. He reasoned that if he was caught, the look might make him look more dangerous than he actually was, giving him a slight advantage should such a situation arise.

The interesting thing was that the right side of the mask was completely bare. No eye hole, and no facial details. The only detailed portion of it was the left, which was a fairly detailed carving of the left side of a human skull. It looked more eerie than scary, and my brother said that I was his source of inspiration for the design. I could not help but smile when I heard that.

He began sneaking out a night, and breaking into the neighbouring houses, stealing valuables and then selling them at a pawn shop. He made a bit of money from this, and bought a few trinkets with his extra money. Our uncle suspected that he was up to no good, but never actually did anything to stop him from doing it.

When I was 17, my brother was finally caught. The one night he decided to go out without the mask was the night someone saw his face. I remember the police entering the house and taking him away.

My uncle didn't even try to stop them, and I was too afraid to do anything. The last time I saw him was when he looked at me through the window of a cruiser, and smiled reassuringly.

I didn't understand why the police arrested him. I mean, sure, he was a thief, but he never hurt anyone. A few stolen wallets and trinkets didn't warrant a few years in a cell did it? To me, the time I spent with my brother learning his secrets and stealing with him were some of the best moments in my life. By teaching me everything he knew, he did what my parents could not, he raised me.

I took up my brother's "profession" a few months after he was taken away. I was determined to not get caught, to carry on for him. I don't really know why I did it, I just knew that I felt compelled to steal.

I took his tool kit, and his mask. And I began breaking into houses quietly and stealing silverware or the occasional book. I took anything that looked valuable.

No one knew who I was. I was extremely careful and made sure that no one would catch me. At least, I thought that I was careful.

When I was 18, I set my sights on the home of an elderly man. He was a short fellow, with a bushy white beard and a balding head. Every morning, he would step outside with his dog and go on a one hour walk around the neighbourhood.

I began taking pictures of his house when he was gone. I wanted this particular "heist" to be as professional as possible. When night fell, I went back to the house and took more pictures whenever I would see a light flick on. Although It wasn't as good as a floor plan, it was better than not knowing anything about the interior.

On the night of my heist, I sneaked out of my bedroom window, and got down to the ground by using the gutter of the house. Once I hit the ground, I made my way to the old man's house, staying off the road and crossing through backyards.

When the house was in sight, I put on the mask, and readied my tool kit. When I reached his back door, I opened up the small pouch, and picked out a pair of lock picks.

I worked quietly and carefully, looking over my shoulder every now and then. I strained my ears, listening to the lock as I probed it. After about a minute, I managed to get it unlocked, and I slowly opened the door.

I slowly walked into the house, staying low and making sure that I was as quiet as possible. I was sure that the old man was probably drowning in sleeping pills, but I wanted to be careful either way.

As luck would have it, the second I closed the door behind me, the light to the kitchen flicked on. The old man was standing right there in the kitchen with me.

I was frozen in place. I didn't know what to do. The old man didn't look mad, he had a gentle smile on his face, almost as if he knew that I would have been coming tonight.

"Don't worry, I won't call the cops. I've been expecting you," He said. He motioned for me to sit down at the table. I calmed down a bit, and realized that there was no dog in the house.

"Where is the dog?" I asked. The old man waved his hand.

"I locked her in the basement so she wouldn't scare you while you were breaking in. Sit," He answered. I slowly sat down, afraid of the old man.

"I knew you were going to break in here sooner or later. To be fair, I would have been worried if you didn't," He said. I tiled my head to the side, and the old man laughed.

"Take that silly mask off, I already know what you look like," He said. I obeyed, and put the mask on the table.

"How did you know I was coming here?" I asked.

"I was told," He said. I raised an eyebrow.

"Who told you? No one knows about my-" I began. The old man pulled a small object from his pocket, and placed it on the table. He quickly pushed it towards me.

The object itself was a small cube with bevelled edges. It glowed with a soft blue light.

"This object appeared on my windowsill a few weeks ago. I don't know what it is, but when I picked it up, it began talking to me," He said. I leaned in my chair, and picked up the object, holding it close to my good eye. It felt pleasantly warm, and all of my previous worries were washed away.

"It told me to give it to you when you arrived. At first I thought I was going crazy, but something about that cube made me know that it was real," He said.

"What is it?" I asked. The old man shrugged.

"I don't know. All I know is that it wanted me to hand it over to you," He said. He walked over to the back door, and opened it. He gestured for me to leaved. As I walked past the door's threshold, I heard the old man giggle.

"You know, you truly are a wonderful thief. I didn't even hear the door unlock while you were working on it," He said. He closed the door quietly behind me, and locked it again.

When I got home, I climbed back up the gutter, and entered my room. I put my backpack down on my bed, and closed my bedroom door quietly so that I didn't disturb my uncle. I turned on my light, and glanced at my room.

A small collection of three Bo staffs were leaning against the back wall. My nintendo 64 was sitting on my desk right next to my small TV. I've recently started playing a few old nintendo games in order to pass idle time. I pulled the cube out of my pocket, and placed my mask on the desk, right next to a Swiss army knife.

I held the cube up to the light, and squinted at it.

"What on earth are you?" I asked. As if in response, the cube began beeping softly, and a light began shining on the top.

A small hologram appeared in front of my face, and text began scrolling in front of my eyes.

_I am a Paradox Key. I change the properties of objects and can open doors to new realities._ It said.

I raised an eyebrow. The warmth emanating from the cube washed away all anxiety that I would normally be feeling in a situation like this.

_I sense that you feel empty. You do not know what to do with yourself._ The key said. I furrowed my brow. What was it talking about? Of course I knew what I wanted.

_Lying to yourself does not change the reality_. It said.

"Ok, what do you suggest I do?" I asked.

_Opening door to a new reality. _Was all it said. I blinked a few times.

"Wha-" I began asking. As soon as I opened my mouth, A blinding flash drowned out the world around me. I couldn't feel anything, yet I was in tremendous pain.

I felt the new text appearing within my own consciousness.

_Modifying subject's biology, entering new world..._

After feeling those words, I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: First Steps

I noticed a few things when I woke up.

One: The blue cube was floating in the air in front of my face.

Two: I was lying down in the middle of a medieval looking alley, rather than in the comfort of my own bedroom.

Three: I was small. Much smaller than an 18 year old should be.

I sat up and rubbed my head. The cube, or as it liked to call itself, the Paradox Key backed away from me in order to give me enough space to move. My backpack was lying next to me, as was my brother's mask and the lock pick kit.

"Where am I?" I asked. My voice was higher pitched than it should have been, and my head didn't quite fell like it should. I couldn't place my finger on what was wrong with it, it just felt odd.

_You have been transported to a place known as Hyrule Castle Town. Your Biology has been modified to fit within this world's time-line._ The Paradox Key said.

I stood up, and looked at my hands. They looked like the hands of a 12 year old child.

"What did you do to me?" I asked. I looked at my legs, and began touching my face. My own voice was unrecognizable.

_Your age has been reversed by 6 years._ The Paradox Key explained.

I stared at the cube for a few seconds. Then lunged at it, trying to squeeze it in my small hands.

"Bring me back home now!" I shouted. I began chasing the small object through the alley, but no matter how hard I tried to catch it, it would always avoid my swipes.

_Returning is impossible unless this world's crisis is alleviated. You wanted to be useful, I have given you the opportunity to be useful. _

The Paradox Key began giving off a warm light, and my anxiety washed away in an instant. I knew what this place was, and thanks to the Paradox Key's soothing effects, I was able to accept the situation a bit more easily.

"Ok... ok. What do I do now?" I asked. The Paradox Key did not answer. Instead, it flew to the backpack that was lying on the ground.

I saw that one of my Bo's was leaning against the wall. The only problem was that it was still full size, while I was a few feet shorter than I was a few minutes ago. Despite this problem, I grabbed the weapon, and put on the backpack.

"Uhmm. If you're able to modify the properties of objects, can you-" I began asking.

_Correcting weapon scale, modifying Backpack's carrying capacity_. The Paradox Key said. The Bo flashed, and was now smaller. The backpack, on the other hand, didn't feel any different.

"Uhmm. What did you do with my backpack?" I asked. The Paradox Key didn't answer, and flew into the right pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out again, but instead of the warm blue glow that covered its surface, it was now a dull grey.

_Paradox Key energy depleted._ It said. I sighed, and put it back into my pocket.

I looked at the ground again, and saw the mask. I grabbed it and stared at it for a few seconds. Thanks to my new body, it was now too big for me to wear. I shrugged and took off the backpack.

I sat down and put the bag in front of me. As soon as I opened it, I almost recoiled. The interior of my bag looked like it was extending further than the container's exterior. I cautiously put my hand inside, then kept reaching in. When my whole forearm made its way into the bag, I quickly pulled it out and shivered. Seeing something that was bigger on the inside for real was very, very strange. My brain was trying to understand how it worked, and while I was slipping my hand inside, I felt a bit sick to my stomach.

I dropped the mask into the bag, and closed it. After putting it back on my back, I decided to make my way to the castle market. Finding it wasn't too hard because all of the people that were busy shopping and walking around in it were generating a fairly audible hum as they were all speaking to one another.

As I made my way through the crowds, I finally completely understood where I was. This was the castle market from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It looked a bit different, and was larger than in the game, but this was definitely the same place.

I don't know why, but a malicious smile spread over my lips as I watched the crowd. I knew that I had no money, and here I was standing in the middle of a gold mine of potential theft victims. I began making my way through the crowd, and got a few odd looks from the people around me. Either they were staring at my clothes or...

"You've got some pretty funny looking ears!" A girl told me. She had short blonde hair and clear blue eyes. She looked like she was my age.

My age? I almost shook my head. As much as I tried to think of myself as the 18 year old boy that I used to be, my brain simply could not accept it. It insisted that I was actually 12 years old.

"Uhh... thanks?" I asked. I self consciously brought a hand up to my ears and felt them. I couldn't believe that I didn't realize that my round ears would be considered strange by these people. But she didn't stop there.

"You've also got a funny set of clothes,"

"Yeah... Uhmm... I'm not from around here," I replied. The girl smiled when I said this.

"Oh, so you're a foreigner?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. I'm from, uh... I'm not from Hyrule you see," I said. She nodded, her smile never left her face. She brought her hand up to her chin.

"Hmm..." She began. I didn't know what she was thinking about. I guessed that she was trying to guess where I was from. As I stood there and looked at her, I felt a strong sense of familiarity. I knew this girl, but at the same time I couldn't recognize her.

As she was about to say something else, a yell caught our attention.

"That brat doesn't care! He's a thief!"

I turned around and saw a few grown ups surrounding another kid near some of the food stalls. My jaw almost hit the floor when I recognized the green uniform. The girl immediately began walking up to him, and I followed her. Something was telling me that it was the only option for me.

The men grabbed a green stone from the boy, who began begging them to give it back. It was at this moment that the girl shouted.

"Hold it!" She said. Her voice had a sudden air of authority that almost made me jump out of my skin.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one that was shocked by her voice. The three men, who I now realized were stall owners, looked at the girl.

"I'll pay you for whatever this boy stole. So please, return that stone," She said. The men all exchanged a few glances, and the girl pulled out a small fabric bag. She opened it, and the faces on the men lit up.

I took a peak at what was in her bag, and almost gasped. It was full of money, and lots of it. I had to almost physically stop myself from snatching it from the girl.

She paid the men and grabbed the future hero of time by the wrist.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Just hurry," She said. She waved at me and I followed them towards a fountain that at the centre of the market square.

Link sat down on the fountain's edge, and I decided to stand off to the side, forming a triangle between the three of us. Link was staring a bit too much at my ears and clothes for me to feel comfortable, and I began shifting nervously.

"How come your ears are round?" He finally asked. I sighed, and told him that I was not from Hyrule.

"Where are you from?" The girl asked. She was staring at Link's clothes.

"Me? I'm from the Kokiri Forrest," He answered. I noticed the blue fairy that was circling the air next to Link's head, and nervously waved a small "hello" at it.

Link seemed to remember something, and pulled out the green stone that the men almost took from him a few minutes earlier.

"Oh! I didn't thank you for this! It's a very important treasure, so thanks for helping me keep it!" He said. He showed her the stone, and I immediately recognized it as the Kokiri Emerald.

"It's a very pretty stone," The girl observed. I leaned on my Bo, and marvelled at it. Seeing it in real life was truly an experience.

"I wonder how much it's worth..." I said. I didn't realize that I said that out loud, and both of the other kids stared at me.

"Sorry, just a habit I picked up a long time ago," I said as I nervously scratched the back of my head.

Link blinked a few times, and addressed the two of us.

"Well... Anyway, it's called the Kokiri Emerald. The Great Deku Tree told me to deliver it to Princess Zelda," He explained. I noticed the girl blink when he mentioned the princess' name.

"That's why we need to get to the castle!" Link said. I raised an eyebrow, because he seemed to be suddenly addressing the fairy that was floating next to him. It took me a few extra moments to remember the creature's name.

"But you can't go into the castle by yourself. It's heavily guarded," The girl said. I shrugged.

"If he needs help getting into it I might be able to help," I said. The boy looked at me with big eyes, and walked right up to me.

"Really?" He asked. I froze for a few seconds, then replied.

"Well... I am a... I mean, I used to..." I began stuttering. I didn't know what they would think of me if I said it. I kept on stuttering for a few moments before Navi got annoyed with me.

"Just say it!" She said.

"Ok! I'm a thief. I've broken into many places before, so a castle shouldn't be much of a challenge for me," I replied. I realized that breaking into a castle would be anything but easy. Both Link and the girl were staring at me, and the girl opened her mouth.

"Instead of breaking into it, you can spend the whole day playing with me. If you do, then I can take you directly to princess Zelda. No law-breaking required," She said.

"Really?" Link asked. I would be lying if I said that I myself was not intrigued by this. I did not remember any of this happening in the game.

"She an I are best friends! Look, here's my proof!" She said. She reached into her lapels and pulled out a blue musical instrument. My eyes widened when I saw it.

It was the Ocarina of Time. It had the same metallic blue colour from the game. It also bore the symbol of the royal family. I realized who this girl was, and felt worried. She did not leave the castle in the game.

Link was busy studying the Ocarina, and I quickly looked around at the people that were walking around the square. When I turned back to the group, Zelda was gone.

"What?" I asked myself.

"Hello there boys," Someone said. Both Link and I turned around to see an armoured woman standing behind us. I was almost trembling when I recognized her as Impa, the princess' personal bodyguard.

"Have you seen a young noble girl around? She has blonde hair and blue eyes," Impa said. Before I could reply, Link began shaking his head.

"Uhm, nope," He said. I don't know why, but I shook my head as well.

Impa nodded, and thanked us for our time. She made her way back into the crowd, and disappeared out of sight.

"Thank you!" Someone said. Zelda popped up from behind the fountain. I realized that she hid behind the Fountain's border by sitting down.

"Link, are you sure about this? Don't you think she's kind of strange?" Navi asked the boy. Link shrugged.

"But she said she'd let us meet princess Zelda," He said. I was looking back at Zelda, and then at Link again. How the hell did he not realize who she was.

I was about to say something, but Zelda interrupted me, and led us to the Bombchu bowling alley. While we were inside, I once again tried to tell Link about her identity, but a rogue Bombchu came dangerously close to detonating next to us. When I glanced back at the princess, she stuck her tongue out at me.

After leaving the bowling alley, Zelda decided to lead us to the shooting gallery. I tried slipping away from the group in order to find Impa, but the girl grabbed me by the ear and dragged me along with her. Link couldn't help but laugh, while I was whimpering in pain. As we walked in, the girl hissed in my ear.

"Don't you dare say anything!"

I hoped that Link heard her, but he was too busy marvelling at the interior of the building, much like he did when we first entered the bowling alley.

I lost track of the amount of time the three of us spent playing around in the market. It was kind of scary actually. As soon as I gave up on trying to tell Link that the girl we were hanging out with was called Zelda, I actually started to have fun.

Next thing I knew, the sun completely vanished from the sky and the market square was almost bare. The moon was high in the sky, and the stars were shining down on us. Link also seemed surprised by how quickly the day went by, but Zelda didn't even seem the least bit bothered. She was still grinning as we made out way back to the fountain. When we got there, Zelda's smile faded, and she turned towards us.

"Thanks for today... I really wanted to know what it was like to buy things with my own money and play for once. Just like a regular girl," She said. Link raised an eyebrow, not understanding what she meant by that. I scratched the back of my head. I realized that I couldn't really imagine what life was like for royalty.

"Your names... Please tell me your names!" Link said. He took a step towards us wearing a great big smile on his face.

Both Zelda and I hesitated for a moment, and Link remembered that he never introduced himself to us either.

"Oh right! I'm Link, by the way!" He said.

"Well... My name is Dante," I answered. I held out my hand, and Link shook it.

Zelda brought her hands up to her chest and clasped them together.

"I'm-" She began.

"There you are, princess!" A woman called out. We all turned to see Impa walking up to us. She had a smile, and didn't seem too bothered that her charge was hanging out with a pair of commoners. Zelda blushed with embarrassment when she saw her guardian.

"I'm glad that you're safe. Let's get you back to the castle," Impa said. Link was blinking. It look kind of comical. I think he finally realized who we've been hanging out with all day.

We both watched in silence as the older woman walked away with the young girl. I heard a slap. It was Link who brought his hand up hard against his forehead.

"I can't believe it! We've been standing next to her this whole time!" He shouted. I raised an eyebrow.

"Were you talking to me or the fairy?" I asked.

"I knew it was her!" Navi said. I blinked, and sighed. Of course they wouldn't be talking to me.

"What do we do now? We have to make it in that castle!" Link exclaimed. The fairy was about to respond.

I coughed loudly.

Both Link and Navi looked at me.

"Did you forget I was standing right here?" I asked. Link blinked again.

"I can help you break into that castle," I said. Link's eyes went wide.

"Ohh!" He said.

"That's right, you said you used to be a thief didn't you?" Navi asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, that's right," I answered. I could not help but smile a bit.

Link was also smiling. He began walking towards the castle, and I decided to follow him.

It took us quite a bit of time to walk to the castle grounds. Just like in the game, there was a guard standing in front of a gate. We couldn't get through without being seen by him. Both Link and I planted our backs against a rock face. It was still night time.

"Ok, what do we do to get by him?" Link asked. I began thinking. I couldn't see any vines growing anywhere, which meant that the area would be a bit different from the in-game counterpart.

"Well, we will have to get around him, but I doubt that either of us is able to crawl up walls like a spider," I answered. I kept on looking around, and looked at the rock face we were pressing our backs against.

"Stay here, I'll try to see if it's possible to climb up this wall," I said. Link raised an eyebrow.

'Didn't you just say-" He began.

"Just shut up and let me do my work!" I almost snapped. I thoughts were running wild, I wasn't thinking straight because I was feeling nervous.

I began feeling the rock face, and found a few hand holds. I slowly began climbing, but fell back down to the ground when my fingers began aching. Navi sighed.

"You do realize that there are vines right over there right?" She said. I looked at her, and watched fly a few feet to my right. I laughed nervously and shook my head. Link was grinning, obviously trying not to laugh.

"I haven't been doing this much recently," I replied quickly. I got back up and began dusting myself, my embarrassment burning on my face.

Link walked up to the vines, and tugged on one of them, a piece of the vine was torn from the rocks. Link furrowed his brow.

"I don't think It wold be safe for us to use this," he said. I walked next to him, and touched the vines.

I felt my pocket growing a bit warm, and pulled out the Paradox Key. It wasn't the same blue colour that it used to be, but it wasn't quite grey either.

_Paradox Key charge at 2%._ It said. My eyes widened.

"We can use this!" I exclaimed. Link and Navi looked at the small cube.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"It's called a Paradox Key. It can change the properties of objects!" I said. I turned towards the vines, and touched them with the key.

Ok, so if the key's charge is at 2%, it means that I can't just use it for anything. I figured that taking me to a whole new world used up a lot of juice, and that it only had enough energy to modify my backpack and Bo after I came to Hyrule.

I prayed that modifying the vines wouldn't be too hard on the key. I concentrated, and begged the key to make the vines safer to climb.

There was a soft glow, and after a few moments, the key stopped glowing. Everything looked the same, and I was beginning to think that it didn't work. Luckily, Link gave a solid tug on the remaining vines, and they did not tear.

"Wow! That's an amazing item!" He said. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure how it works myself. But it is useful for someone like me to have one," I said. I quickly looked at the cube, it was grey again.

_Paradox Key energy depleted._ It said.

"Aaand it's drained again," I said with a disappointed frown. Navi flew up to me and asked me what I meant.

"Well, the key has a specific energy charge, or at least, I think that's how it works. Anyway, whenever I use it, it drains its energy. If it runs out of energy, I can't use it anymore for a while," I explained. I hoped that it was an accurate description.

"I see," Navi said. Link went ahead and climbed up the vines. I quickly followed behind, not daring to look down at the ground below.

We made it to the other side of the gate, but Link decided against using the gate's ladder, saying that the guard might hear us descending. So what was his brilliant plan? It was to leap down from our vantage point directly onto the path to the castle.

"You're crazy," I told him. Link grinned, I think he took that as a compliment.

"Ohh come on, I've fallen from much higher places before," He told me. I raised an eyebrow.

"You're telling me that you regularly go out and find cliffs to jump off of?" I asked. Link giggled quietly and shook his head.

"No, when I was inside of the great Deku Tree I fell from a high platform through a web and into some water," He said. It took me a second to remember what part of the Deku Tree dungeon he was talking about. I looked back at the ground beneath us.

"I don't see any water here," I said. Navi sighed.

"You're telling me that you're a thief who's never jumped down from high places before or climbed up walls?" She asked me.

"Safety is one of my top priorities!" I almost shouted. Link had to hush me in order to make sure no guards heard me.

"You can't seriously expect me to-" I began. Link jumped, and landed with a roll. He stood up again and waved at me. My mouth was still open, and I was completely frozen.

Link waved at me to join him. I was trembling, and noisily swallowed. If I was in my 18 year old body, I would have probably felt a bit more confident, but right now I was just a kid.

Navi flew up to me. I watched the fairy for a few seconds before she spoke.

"Come on, If Link could do it so can you," She said. I shook my head, and looked down again. I really didn't want to jump.

"Don't be a coward!" Navi said. As soon as I heard her, I threw myself off the edge.

I landed and felt my legs flare in pain, but no bones were broken. I collapsed onto the ground and grabbed my shins with a groan.

"Damn... I hate being called a coward," I muttered under my breath. Whenever someone accused me of being a cowards, I would instantly do whatever it was that they said I was afraid of doing in order to prove them wrong. When I was younger, my brother kept on telling me that I was too easy to manipulate because of it.

Link helped me up, and tapped my shoulder. He gave me a thumbs up and began walking towards the castle. I followed him, and we both stayed low in order to avoid being seen.

We almost made it to the front gate, but a couple of guards were standing in the way. We could hear some running water, and made our way towards it.

There was a moat that was filled with crystal clear water. Before telling Link to jump in the moat and follow me, I looked out to the horizon, and noticed that the sun was already coming up, which made me raise an eyebrow. Were days and nights in Hyrule shorter than they are on Earth?

In any case, I threw the Bo into my backpack and quietly got into the water. It was cold and uncomfortable, but I told myself that it was better than the end of a spear.

Link followed me in, and we both swam along the side of the moat, looking for a way up. It took a short while, but we finally made it to a platform that we were able to reach. Link climbed out of the water first, and pulled me up behind him.

"Ok, let's see here," I said. I saw a metal door, and there was also an unreachable drain with water streaming out of it that I remembered as the entry point into the castle from the game. The only problem with that drain was that we were both unable to physically reach it.

Link tried to open the door, but it was locked. Like in the game, there were a few crates, but unlike in the game, Malon's father was no where to be found.

"We have two options here," I said. Link looked at me attentively.

"I can either try to pick the lock on that door and we can enter through there, or we can-" I began.

"Use the crates to help us reach that window," Link finished for me. He was grinning, and I could not help but smile myself.

"Right... So here's what we're going to do. You're going to work with the crates, while I work on the door. That way both jobs get done at the same time," I said, not bothering to correct Link's mistake in calling the drain a window. Link nodded, and went to the nearest crate. I walked up to the door, and put my backpack down. I reached inside, and grabbed my lock picks.

I stuck two hooks into the doors lock and began feeling my way around it. Before even attempting to do anything, I wanted to get a good feel of the lock. Link was already pushing the crates to where they needed to be.

After a few moments, I officially began working the lock, pocking, prodding, and forcing the interior in an attempt to get it open. My ear was nearly stuck against the door, and I stopped paying attention to everything else around me. I heard a few soft clicks, but nothing that told me that I unlocked it yet.

"Dante?" Someone asked. I paid no attention to them, and kept on working with the lock.

"Dante?" They asked again. I hissed at them to be quiet. I was getting close, I could feel it. I was just about to put in the final touch before something bright and blue flew right into my face with a loud "HEY!"

I yelped and fell flat on my butt. My lock picks stayed in the lock. I looked up in confusion, before realizing that it was Navi that knocked me down.

"What the heck do you want? I was just about to unlock the door!" I almost shouted. Navi began flying back towards the green-clad hero, and I realized that he was already done with his boxes. The only problem, was that the jump from the box to the drain still looked kind of far. If either of us screwed up, we'd make a big splash in the moat, and a guard was likely to hear us.

"I was almost done with the lock, you could have waited until after I was done," I said. I got back up, and reached for the lock picks again.

"Oh come on Dante! We can make that jump easily!" Link said. I looked back again, and swallowed.

"I don't doubt that you can do it, but I'm not to keen on risking discovery for trying to make it to that drain," I replied. Link chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'll catch you if you fail. That's what friends are for right?" He said. I raised an eyebrow when he said this. We didn't even know each other for very long, and he was already calling me a friend.

I finally agreed to Link's idea, and collected the picks from the door. After putting my tools away, I watched Link make the jump. He almost messed up, but luckily he was able to catch the edge of the drain and pull himself up. He didn't have much to crouch on when he finally did pull himself up. I pulled myself on top of the milk crate and hesitated.

"Come on!" He said. He motioned for me to jump, and I looked down at the moat. I took a few deep breaths, began moving towards the edge of the crate, and stopped. I shook my head, slapped my cheeks, and repositioned myself to try again.

"I won't screw up, I won't screw up," I muttered to myself. Navi flew over to me.

"Go on, it's not as far as it seems," She said. I looked at her, and nodded. I took another deep breath, and ran. After two strong steps, I threw myself into the air, and instantly regretted it.

I wasn't going to make it, Even if I reached up for the edge of the drain, I would not be able to catch it. Despite this knowledge, I reached anyways, and my companion leaned over the edge and caught me. He let out a yelp as my weight began pulling him down, but miraculously, he caught himself and didn't fall.

I was breathing hard, my heart was also beating loudly. Water was pouring onto my head, and Link pulled me up high enough so I could grab on to the edge.

"Just stay there and wait until I get inside before pulling yourself up," Link said. I nodded, still panting with fright. As soon as Link made it into the drain, I pulled myself up and hugged the wall. I would have kissed it too if Navi didn't urge me to follow her master.

I never knew how uncomfortable it was to crawl in a tight space while water is rushing against you until I did exactly that. Every second that I spent in that small cramped tunnel made me grumpier and grumpier as I got wetter and colder from the water. I was on the verge of vocalizing my discomfort to my companions before suddenly seeing Link make it out the end of the tunnel. Upon seeing my new friend get in a low crouch, I began crawling faster, and almost threw myself out of the tunnel.

I got next to the fairy-boy and sighed.

"I've had enough of water for one day," I muttered. We were both standing in a small tub of sorts. We exited it, and planted our backs against the nearest wall.

After getting a good look at our surroundings, I realized that we were in some gardens. There was grass everywhere, and vines were crawling up almost every wall. I peeked out of our hiding place, and swallowed when I saw many guards patrolling the area.

"Ok... This is gonna be tricky," I said. Link looked from our hiding spot, and nodded.

"That's why we have you right? You're the expert on breaking in and out of places," He said. I shook my head.

"Heavily Guarded castles aren't something I struck frequently," I said. Navi laughed a bit, and asked if I only targeted poorer people whenever I did steal things. I simply nodded in response.

"That's cruel!" Link whispered. I shrugged.

"I'm also poor," Was my response.

Navi decided to fly ahead, and tell us if the coast was clear. Having Navi as a part of our team made sneaking past the guards a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. There were a few moments where we were nearly caught, but Navi would quickly distract any guards that would come close to us. They didn't attack her, and were instead constantly amazed whenever they saw her. I don't think anyone in this castle has ever seen a fairy before.

The sun's light was filling the courtyard by the time we made it through the gardens. Link stopped moving, and pointed to a single figure that was standing in front of a window. Her back was turned to us, but I instantly recognized her as Princess Zelda.

"Is that her?" Link asked in a hushed voice. I shrugged.

"I think so," I replied in an equally quiet voice.

The two of us walked up to the Princess, and awkwardly stood behind her. After a few moments, Link coughed, and Zelda squeaked in surprise. She whipped around, and sighed in relief when she saw us. After re-composing herself, she waved at us.

"Hello," She said. She seemed a bit nervous. I guessed that it was because she didn't tell us who she was yesterday. Upon realizing that the time the three of us spent together in the castle town market was yesterday, I began feeling incredibly drowsy.

"So you're princess Zelda..." Link said. He also seemed a bit nervous. It was almost like he didn't know what he should do next. I didn't either, so I kept my mouth shut.

Before anyone could say anything, Zelda's gaze was drawn to something entering the courtyard, and I heard a heavy pair of boots stepping towards us. The sound itself wasn't very loud, but something about it made it seem oppressive. Link and I both turned around, and I felt my heart skip a few beats because of the instinctive fear I began to feel. What I saw was _not_ supposed to happen. It never happened in the game, and I was truly afraid of the man who stood before us.

It was Ganondorf, the primary antagonist of the Zelda games. He stopped walking towards us and smiled. Everything about him screamed "I'M EVIL!", and the very air in the courtyard seemed to become heavier. Looking at him made me afraid, it was almost as if his very presence triggered a deep-rooted instinct in my body that screamed at me to run and hide.

"Greetings Princess Zelda, I've come to meet with your father," He said. Ganondorf's voice was very strong, but not necessarily deep. For a lack of a better description, he sounded like a politician.

"Ganondorf, how ill-mannered of you to enter the courtyard without permission," Zelda said. Her voice had a subtle charge. She clearly didn't like this man. Link and I stayed quiet. I glanced at the boy, and was surprised to see that he didn't look scared.

"Glory would be if you allowed us to enter in a union with Hyrule. There is no other country as beautiful as this one, and no other princess that is as lovely as you are either," Ganondorf said. My mouth almost dropped open. Was this guy trying to hit on the princess? Was I seeing a 40-something year old man hitting on a 11 or 12 year old girl? I felt like I needed to wash myself, but I was also too afraid to move from my spot.

"There is no need for flattery, step away from me," Zelda said. I noticed that the villain took a few more steps towards our group as he was talking. He stopped moving, but didn't step back either. I swear I was almost able to _feel_ the evil radiating from him.

Ganondorf's eyes squinted a bit, but he still paid no attention to anyone other than Zelda. He smiled again, and I resisted the urge to hide my face behind my hands like a small child who was watching his first slasher film.

"By the way... The secret treasure passed down through the Royal Family, the Ocarina of Time... You have it don't you, you highness? Sometime, could you show it to me?" He asked. I felt the need to swallow a bit of saliva. This man was seriously scary.

Luckily for us, Zelda kept her cool, and replied with a voice that showed that her spirit could withstand a hurricane's strongest winds without wavering.

"I know not of what you speak. Is there anything else you want to say before meeting with my father? Or do you enjoy wasting time?" She asked. Ganondorf did not falter. He only seemed amused by her response. He shook his head, and told her that he was going to leave. Although before doing so, he finally noticed Link and I, and glared menacingly in our directions. I was glad I was already as scared as I could be. After glancing at Link, I saw that the boy was completely unaffected by the evil man's presence. This guy's bravery was almost scary.

"Who was that?" Link finally asked when Ganondorf was out of earshot. Zelda looked at him, but I responded before she could.

"I'm going to say that he's probably the evilest man alive?"

"His name is Ganondorf. He is the king of the Gerudos, a race that resides in the deserts in the west. Right now, he may pledge loyalty to my father, but in reality he covets the Triforce's power," Zelda explained. Link's jaw dropped, almost as if something clicked in his head.

"The Triforce!?" He asked. Shock was written all over his face. Zelda nodded, and sat down on a step. Link sat down next to her, while I decided to keep standing.

"I had this dream... It was a frightening dream. Hyrule was covered in black clouds, and no light could penetrate their dark barrier. But then, a ray of light appeared, and cut through the clouds to shine bright onto the earth. It soon realized that this light, was actually a person who was followed by a fairy, holding a stone that shined with a beautiful green light," Zelda said. I glanced at Link.

"Sounds a lot like you," I said. Link looked at me, and raised an eyebrow. Zelda nodded at me.

"Yes, you're right. After meeting you guys, I knew that Link was the one who appeared in my dream," Zelda said. Link looked at her, and looked at the ground. I could have sworn that I saw a bit of blush appear on his face. I mentally grinned, I was going to use this later.

"I... I am frightened. Ganondorf has to be what the clouds in my dream represented. I feel that his evil heart will destroy Hyrule," She said. I looked at the window, and saw Ganondorf walk into view. He bowed to someone who was probably outside of the window's field of view.

"Speak of the devil," I said. Link and Zelda both looked at me, before looking at the window. We looked at the Gerudo for a few moments.

"I guess he's pledging his allegiance to your father right now?" I asked. Zelda nodded.

"I told my father about my dream, but he doesn't believe me," She said. I snorted.

"How can your dad trust this guy? You can tell he's up to no good just by looking at him!" I said. I was unaware if this was coincidence or if it was because he actually heard me, but Ganondorf's head slightly turned towards me, and he glared at me menacingly. I quickly turned away from the window.

"Well... Your father may not believe you, but I believe you! The Great Deku Tree died because of his evil power," Link said. Although I knew what he was talking about, I told myself that I would have to ask him about it later.

Zelda looked at Link. A determined look was on her face.

"You must not allow Ganondorf to get the Triforce," She said. Link nodded. I remembered that Zelda was supposed to explain what the Triforce was, but I figured that since Link was no longer being controlled by a player, he probably already knew what it was supposed to be.

"Where is the Triforce?" Navi asked. I almost forgot about her during our entire conversation because she was so quiet until now.

"The Triforce is said to be kept within the Sacred Realm. The entrance to the Sacred Realm is within the Temple of Time... However, the door is sealed behind a stone wall," Zelda explained.

"In order to open it, one must collect three gems and put them in their proper place at the temple,"

"You mean like Link's green stone?" I asked. Although I already knew what she was talking about, I was genuinely asking. Playing the game and actually being here in this conversation were two completely different things.

Zelda nodded, and pulled out a blue Ocarina. It was the same one she pulled out when we were at the market. The Ocarina of Time.

"There is one more secret. The Royal Family's heirloom... The Ocarina of Time," She said. She explained to us that we would need to use it in order to open the door in the temple, but that she would hang on to it while we were gone getting the two other stones.

Link agreed with the plan, while I was a bit confused.

"Uhmm... You said that the two of us would go and collect the two other stones?" I asked. Zelda looked at me, and nodded.

"Why yes. You've accompanied us this far, and we've entrusted you with our whole plan, so you don't have much of a choice," She said. I took a step back.

"I only promised to help get Link into the castle to see you. I never agreed to run up and down the Kingdom looking for stones!" I said. After seeing Ganondorf in real life, I was honestly quite worried by what we would end up having to face together.

"If you refuse, I could have the guards arrest you and lock you up until we defeat Ganondorf," Zelda said. She smiled sweetly, and I was suddenly more afraid of her than I was of the Gerudo King.

"Uhh... Who said I wasn't going to help? I'm in! I'm in!" I said in a panic. I don't know why, but I honestly believe that she would have had me arrested if I didn't agree to help. Zelda looked up, and smiled.

"Hey Impa! He's the messenger from the forest that I saw in my dream. And this other boy is his friend," Zelda said. Both Link and I turned around to find a woman standing behind us. I almost had a heart attack, because I didn't hear her come into the courtyard. It was the same woman to retrieved Zelda from the market. Link awkwardly waved at the woman, who smiled kindly in return.

"I am Zelda's bodyguard," Impa said. I finally waved, and calmed down my heartbeat.

"Impa will be able to point you guys in the right direction," Zelda said. Impa nodded, and motioned for us to follow her. Both Link and I walked behind her, and stopped when she turned around to us.

"Before we leave, I want to teach you two a song. It is an old song that has been passed down her family for generations. Only those who are closely affiliated with the Royal Family know it. If you ever come across someone or something that requires a messenger from the royal family to prove themselves, use this song," Impa said. She played the song for us, and Link pulled out his Ocarina. After a few attempts, he mastered the song.

"Oh wait!" We heard Zelda cry. She ran up behind us, and gave an envelope to Link. Link took it, and raised an eyebrow.

"What's this?" He asked curiously.

"It's a letter with my seal. The path to the Goron kingdom is sealed because of the active volcano, but if you show the guard on duty this letter, they should let you through," Zelda said. Link nodded, and we turned back towards Impa.

The older woman smiled, and led us outside of the Castle. This time, we didn't need to worry about guards, because Impa would wave them away, and tell them that we were both princess Zelda's guests. The guards didn't question her, but they were clearly a bit suspicious of us because they never saw us enter the castle.

Impa walked with us until we crossed the drawbridge that led to Hyrule Field. It was my first time seeing it in real life, and I was unable to keep my mouth shut. The landscape was surreal. It was lush, green, and beautiful. Impa brought our attention to a mountain range in the distance. The highest peak had a white ring of smoke circling around it.

"That there is Death Mountain. It is where the Gorons live. You boys should go and talk to their chief in order to learn more about the second spiritual stone," Impa said. I was still mesmerized by the scenery, and barely heard her.

"The rest is up to you! I will pray for your safe return!" Impa said. She waved us goodbye, and began walking back towards the castle. Link and I waved at her, and then finally looked at each other. Navi flew between us, and then began heading towards our destination.

"So, what's the plan?" She asked after we followed her for a few meters. I yawned loudly, and stratched myself.

"I am pretty tired. I really want to go to sleep right now," I answered. Link laughed, but was interrupted by a yawn of his own. I laughed at him, and he scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I guess we should get some rest first, then we can find that spiritual stone," He said. I nodded.

"Yeah, sleep sounds like a good plan," I answered. I've officially taken my first steps on this journey. I was scared, and excited, and could not wait to see what was next. My initial sense of fear was gone, and I smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Journey to the Mountain

**Note: I'll do my best to keep posting long chapters, but I've also got a lot of work to do, so don't expect the updates to be frequent any more. Let me know as soon as you find mistakes, and I will work to correct them as soon as possible.**

We ended up sleeping on the grass. When I woke up, I had to pull a caterpillar off of my nose, and rub the sleep from my eyes. Link was already up, and practising a few sword swings while he waited for me to get up. I watched him for a few moments, before he realized that I was awake. He waved at me, and I walked up to him while yawning.

"Slept well?" He asked.

"Not really, I had bugs crawling all over me all night," I replied. Link shrugged, and told me that he slept pretty well.

"That's because you're from the forest," Navi reminded him. Link laughed, and began leading the way towards Death Mountain.

I followed the boy, and we began talking to each other in order to know a bit more about each other.

"So why are your ears round?" Link asked. I sighed.

"You already asked me that question when we first met each other. I told you, I'm not from around here," I answered. Link shrugged.

"Yeah, but even Ganondorf had pointed ears, and he's not Hylian," Link replied.

"Uhmm..." I was actually trying really hard to think of an answer to that question. What can I say that didn't involve something like "I'm actually from a parallel universe and this one is from a video game I used to play!"?

"Were you just born that way?" Navi asked. She gave me my answer.

"Yeah, actually! It's a defect that I've been born with. I guess my ears didn't develop properly or something," I replied. Link nodded, and immediately asked me another question.

"What happened to your eye?" He asked me. I brought my hand up to my eye patch, and shook my head.

"Is it ok if I don't want to answer that question? I can't really remember how it happened, and I don't think I want to remember," I asked. Link looked like he was visibly sorry for asking it.

"Sorry," He said. I told him that it was ok, and then decided to ask a few questions of my own.

"So what about you? You said that you were from the forest?" I asked. Link nodded.

"Yeah, I'm from the Kokiri forest. It's a great place, and everyone there was really nice... except for Midow... B-but he wasn't that bad either!" Link explained. I smiled.

"I never had too many friends," I said. Link kept on walking.

"I'm sure there was at least one person you spent a lot of time with," He said. I smiled.

"Yeah, I used to play a lot with my older brother before he got arrested," I answered. Link stopped walking.

"What?"

"He taught me everything he knew about stealing. He's the reason I'm a thief," I answered. Link blinked, he was kind of shocked. At least, I think he was shocked.

"Let me guess, he got caught didn't he?" Navi asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. After he was arrested I took over the whole stealing thing. It was the best way I could honour him," I explained. I stopped walking for a few moments, and pulled the Bo from my backpack. I began using it as a walking stick, which would have made my old Sensei punish me for treating the weapon in that way.

"What is that stick anyways?" Link asked me. He was curiously looking at the Bo.

"It's called a Bo," I answered. WeI began miming the action of holding it on my shoulders to carry to water buckets..

"Originally, these things were used to carry water buckets over long distances. But the Samurai weren't the nicest people around, and there were bandits that were roaming the countryside. Since the law stated that civilians could not carry weapons, they modified the design of these carrying poles so that it could be used as a weapon," I answered. I figured that giving him what I hoped was an accurate history on the weapon wouldn't be too bad.

"Samurai?" He asked. I figured that I would use this as a part of the answer to his "Where are you from?" question.

"Well as you know, I'm not from Hyrule. The Samurai are basically my homeland's equivalent to a Knight in Hyrule. They were trained since the age of 3 years old to fight," I replied. Link raised an eyebrow.

"And they weren't nice to the people?" He asked. I shrugged.

"It depended on the individual. Some were nice, others were very cruel and abused their power," I replied. Link shook his head.

"Your homeland sounds scary," He said. I laughed.

"Yeah, well I never ran into a Samurai in my life so I never had to deal with them," I replied. We kept on walking.

Many hours passed. We had on and off conversations, and took a few breaks. At noon, I realized something when I felt my stomach growl.

"Link... Did we pack any food before leaving the castle?" I asked. Link was about to answer, and then a horrified look appeared on his face.

"Dante... We don't have any food!" He said. I heard Navi sigh. Link and I were both panicking, worrying about starving before reaching our destination.

"If you guys took a few seconds to observe your surroundings, you might be able to find some," Navi said. We stopped our worrying, and looked at Navi. She motioned in the distance, and we saw what looked like a farm in the distance. I recognized it, it was the Lon Lon Ranch!

"Oh... Looks like we won't starve after all," I said. Link laughed awkwardly, and I thought I also heard Navi laugh a bit, despite trying to look like she was unimpressed.

We made our way towards the ranch, and as we got closer, we began to hear a girl's voice. Whoever it was was singing a song, and I recognized it as Epona's song.

We made our way into the ranch, and saw a moustached man working on the farm. He looked at us, and did not look too happy to see us. He had bags under his eyes, and mumbled under his breath.

"Malon! MALON! Get your dad! Tell 'im he's got customers!" He shouted. The girl stopped singing, and I heard Ingo groan and complain about being the only person doing work on the ranch.

:Sheesh, talk about mister grumpy pants," I whispered to my companions. Link nodded, it seemed like it was the first time he was seeing a rude person.

A girl showed up in front of us, and grinned when she saw Link. Link saw her, and his face lit up.

"It's the Fairy-Boy!" The Girl said.

"Malon! How have you been!" Link responded. I raised an eyebrow. Link already met these people? How? When?

"You know her?" I asked. Link nodded, and Malon cheerfully ran into the farm house to get her father.

"Yeah, when I was on my way to Hyrule Castle I ran into her and her father. They were delivering milk crates to the castle and let me ride with them in their carrage," Link explained.

"They were very nice people. I'm surprised that there is such a grumpy person working with them," Navi added in a hushed tone.

The father walked out of the house, groggy and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Malon was almost pushing him towards us.

"Look daddy, it's the Fairy-Boy!" She said. Her father blinked a few times, and a smile spread on his face.

"Link! How have you been?" He asked. He walked up to us and shook hands with the boy.

"I'm fine, Mr. Talon," Link said with a smile. Talon turned towards me and saw me for the first time.

"Oh? And who might you be?" He asked. I introduced myself and shook his hand. He stared at me for a few extra moments.

"Dad, why are his ears round?" Malon asked. I quickly slapped my hands over my ears, feeling embarrassed.

"Malon, don't stare. He can't help it if he was born that way," Talon said. I don't know what was worse, Malon reminding me that I was different to every other person in Hyrule, or having her father automatically assume that I was deformed. Sure, I did tell Link that that was the reason my ears were round, but right now I wasn't too keen on hearing that explanation again.

Talon led us inside of the house, and sat us down at a table. I noted that the interior of the house looked a lot more normal than it did in the game, and there was only one cucco inside the building. We all sat down at a table, and Talon asked us what brought us here.

"Well, we're travelling to Death Mountain, and forgot to pack some food with us," Link explained. Although I saw a bit of embarrassment on his face, he hid it well in his voice.

Talon laughed out loud. He sounded like a jolly Santa Claus. Malon smiled, but didn't laugh.

"We were wondering if we could buy a bit of food?" I asked. Link looked at me. With a quizzical look.

"Do we even have any money?" He asked me. I winked at him, and reached into my backpack. While we were on our way out of the Castle Town, I took the liberty to snatch a few Rupee purses. I'm sure Impa noticed me, but she never actually stopped me. Link looked horrified, but didn't say anything.

Talon looked at our exchange, clearly not understanding what was going on between us. He nodded once I showed him my money, and left to gather a few products.

Malon stayed with us, and walked up to Link. Navi kept flying lazily in the air, occasionally stopping to look at something in the house.

"How long will you be staying here?" Malon asked. Link shrugged.

"I don't know. We might leave after buying some food, or we might stay for a night," Link replied.

"I think we should stay, I've had enough with walking for one day," I quickly said. Link looked at me, and shrugged with a smile.

"Sure, we'll stay one night," He said. Malon grinned, and turned back towards the door when her father stepped back into the building.

"I'm not sure how far Kokiriko Village is by foot, so I'm willing you offer you guys some dried fruits and a bottle of Lon Lon Milk," Talon said. I made a mental grimace. I hated dried fruits.

"Lon Lon Milk?" Link asked. Talon smiled, and held out a pair of bottles.

"Yeah, it's the best milk in all the kingdom! It never expires, and it also has special properties," Talon said. He put his products on the table, and let us watch them. I didn't waste time analyzing every little food product.

"How much for all of it?" I asked. Talon scratched his chin.

"Well... Link here is a nice boy, and he didn't have any money on him the last time I saw him... I think I'll give you guys a discount and offer it all for 10 rupees," He said. I dug into my Rupee purses and grabbed a pair of blue ones.

"There you go," I said. Talon grabbed the rupees and stuck them in his pocket. In turn, I grabbed the milk and fruits and put them in my backpack.

Talon sat down at the table again, and looked at us. Malon walked up to her father's side.

"Dad, Link says that they will be staying here for one night," Malon said. Talon looked thoughtful for a moment, and nodded.

"Sure, but they'll have to sleep in the barn. We don't have any extra beds in the house," Talon said. I began reaching for more rupees, and Talon raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing? You don't have to pay me to let you stay!" He said. I froze, and awkwardly put the rupee purse away.

Malon smiled, and grabbed Link by the arm. She told me to come with them, and she led us outside. Talon waved us good-bye, and told us not to get into any trouble. The other farmer was out of sight, he was probably in the barn doing some more work in there. Malon led us to a fenced field that was full of horses. We made our way into the middle of the field, and Malon was greeted by a horse that was a bit darker in terms of colour than the rest.

"Hey Epona! I'm back!" Malon said. The horse happily trotted up to her, and allowed the girl to pet her muzzle. Link was smiling, and walked up to the horse next to Malon. As soon as Link reached out to pet it, the horse reared back, and ran away.

Malon laughed at the poor boy, and Link stood there with a confused look on his face. Malon explained to him that Epona was wary of strangers, and that he would have to earn her trust in order to pet her. Link blinked, and begged Malon to tell him how to gain Epona's trust.

"You have to sing to her," Malon said. I nodded, this was the moment when Link would learn Epona's song. Malon began singing, and Epona came back. This time, however, the horse made sure to keep Malon between Link and herself.

Link pulled out his Ocarina, and for the first time I actually got a good look at it. The Ocarina was a lot more intricate than in the game, even if it wasn't the Ocarina of Time. There were many fine markings all over it, and every single one of its features looked at if it had been crafted with love.

Link began playing the song that Malon sung, and in a few moments, Epona was getting closer to him. Link noticed this, and began walking backwards with a smile on his face. He kept on playing the song, Epona kept trying to get closer to him, and Link kept on backing away. After a few more moments, Link stopped playing the music, and began running away from Epona, laughing. The horse chased him and when it caught up to him, it bumped its head against his back to knock him down.

Link fell to the ground, still laughing. Epona moved her head close to the boy, and he began petting her. I would be lying if I said that I didn't smile. Malon and I walked up to the boy, and he stood up as soon as Epona let him.

We played with Epona for a few hours before Talon called us back to the house. I was surprised to see that he decided to serve us some food before we went off to bed. When I tried to pay him for it, he refused.

"This isn't part of a transaction. I'm feeding you boys as my guests," He told me. Link thanked him, and began eating his food. Malon sat down next to Link, and throughout the entire dinner I kept catching her staring at him or trying to get his attention. Link payed as much attention to her as he did to everyone else, so she didn't end up getting the special treatment she probably wanted from him.

After eating, we were led into the barn by Ingo, Talon's grumpy brother. He warned us about causing trouble, and that he'd beat us if we messed anything up. After he left, Link and I exchanged glances.

"What a nice guy," I said. Link raised an eyebrow. I explained to him that I was being sarcastic. Link let out a small laugh, but it was obvious that he didn't really mean it. We made our way to one of the barn's stalls, and made ourselves a bed with the hay.

"You know, I couldn't help but notice that Malon really likes watching you," I said. Link looked at me, his cheeks reddened a bit.

"Really? Why? I mean... I didn't do anything, and I don't really-" He began. I pressed on, attacking him relentlessly.

"Oh right, I forgot. You're the kind of guy whose more into noble girls, right?" I continued. Link shook his head. He knew I was talking about Zelda.

"Why are you picking on me?" He asked. Navi was trying not to laugh.

"You like her don't you? You like the princess?" I asked. I moved a bit closer to Link, trying to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible.

"I don't even know her that well," Link said. He shoved me away, and lied down on the straw.

"Yeah, but as soon as she mentioned seeing you in her dreams, I saw you blush," I said. Link looked at me. He looked like he was about to respond, but he realized he had nothing to use against me.

"That was just because-" He began. I didn't let him finish.

"Oh wait, now I get it! You're the kind of guy who likes to surround himself with women right? You're telling me you want to juggle Malon and Zelda?"

"Dante, stop it! What's gotten into you all the sudden?" Link asked. Navi decided to join in.

"Don't forget about Saria," She added. I temporarily forgot who Saria was, and asked the fairy about her.

"She was Link's best friend in the Kokiri Forest. Before he left, she gave him an Ocarina," Navi said. I looked at Link, and asked him to see the Ocarina. Link reluctantly pulled it out.

"Wow, talk about unfaithful. You're telling me this Saria gave you a present and you're seeing other girls while her back is turned?" I asked. Link was starting to get immune to my teasing, and stopped reacting to it. I decided to lay off of him for a while.

"Dante, why are you teasing me all the sudden?" Link asked. I lied down in my own bed of straw, and shrugged.

"It's what friends do. A little friendly teasing never hurt anyone," I replied. I heard Link laugh.

"I guess you're right," He said. Link tapped my shoulder.

"I'm curious, did your brother give you anything special for you to keep before he was arrested?" He asked. I nodded.

"He didn't technically give me anything, but you could say that I inherited a few things," I replied. I grabbed my backpack and dug through it. I pulled out the lock picks and the mask.

"These lock picks used to belong to him, and this was the mask he wore when he went out," I said. I passed the items to Link, who studied them closely. He spent more time on the mask, and eventually handed everything back to me.

"Why does the mask look so scary?" Navi asked. I chuckled.

"Because he figured that a scary mask would somehow give him an advantage if he ever got caught. I was the source of inspiration for the design too, you know?" I replied. I held the mask up next to my face, and stared at my companions.

Link blinked a few times, and furrowed his brow. He told me that the closest thing to any similarity between me and the mask was that I was blind in my right eye, and the mask had no right eye hole.

I nodded, told him that that was the only similarity that I shared with the mask.

I slept pretty well that night, despite waking up with itches all over my body. As I began getting ready for the day, I had to keep on scratching pieces of stray out of my clothes in order to feel comfortable again.

Link was already out of the barn by the time I woke up. I found him playing with Malon and Epona again. I, on the other hand, decided to spend a few minutes touching up on my Bo skills. I didn't really practice with it when I first came here, so I figured that it would be a good thing for me to get a few minutes of work in.

I did a few jabs at an imaginary dummy, and also took a few sings. I made sure that the point of the Bo was almost always pointing towards my imaginary opponent's throat. Eventually, I reared back to strike, but stopped when I felt the Bo hit something.

"Ow!" I heard someone cry. I quickly turned around and saw Link lying on his back, rubbing his head.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry!" I said. I quickly helped Link back up on his feet, and he smiled at me, letting me know that all was forgiven.

I stood there, feeling bad about accidentally hitting him. Link motioned for me to follow him, and we began walking back towards Malon and Epona.

"So, I learned that there is a village at the foot of the mountain," Link told me. I nodded, pretending to be ignorant. I still didn't know if telling him what I knew about this world would make me seem crazy or not. Worst case scenario, it causes a rip in the space-time continuum or something like that.

"So... You're saying that we should stop by?" I asked. Link nodded.

"We don't have much of a choice. The only way up the mountain is by going through Kakariko village," He replied. We reached Malon and Epona, and Link petted the horse.

"Have you guys figured out your next move?" She asked. Both of us nodded in return.

"Yeah, hopefully we can make it to Kakariko by the end of the day if we move quickly," Link said. Malon laughed, and shook her head.

"Ohh, fairy-boy, Kakariko is a long ways away. You're going to be on the road for at least a couple of days," She replied. Link shrugged, telling her that we wouldn't be stopping unless we absolutely had to.

We left the Ranch a couple of hours later. It wasn't too early in the day, but it wasn't noon yet either. We began walking towards the mountain again, using its high peak as our orientation marker. My initial marvel of Hyrule field was slowly turning in boredom. It took me a few moments, but I realized that the terrain was actually pretty flat save for a few hills here and there.

We didn't make it to Kakariko that day. We had to sleep in the field again, and consequently I didn't get a good night's sleep. The distances in the real Hyrule Field were much larger than they were in the game. We ate our dried fruit when we were taking breaks from walking, and I would always grimace whenever I was forced to feed myself. Drying out a fruit is probably the worst thing you could do to it. It makes a perfectly edible and nutritious food product turn into the most revolting thing on the planet.

Both Link and Navi would make fun of me whenever we were eating. Link couldn't understand why I hated dried fruit, and sadly it wasn't something that I could easily explain. So, like a grown up, I handled things the same way any rational person would: by spitting incredibly childish insults in their direction.

It was weird. As much as I wanted to handle things like the old me, the current me kept on behaving like a child. After the fact, I was able to look back on the events and feel embarrassed about my behaviour, but whenever I was actually faced with a situation, I would always handle it the same way the 12 year old me would have done it. I was beginning to suspect that the Paradox Key altered my mind along with my body.

Speaking of the paradox key, I kept a close eye on its charge level. During the whole trip, the charge rose to a great big 6%! Link kept on asking me to do a trick with it, but I didn't want to waste the little charge that I had on it.

When we finally crossed the bridge over the stream that came from the Zora's Domain, it only took us another half hour to finally reach Kakariko Village. Like pretty much every other location that I have visited, Kakariko was almost completely different in real life than it was in the game.

The first thing we did when we got to kakariko was find an Inn and rent a room for the day. We were exhausted, and I was particularly grumpy. I slept like a baby that night, and it took me a good long time for me to pull myself out of bed. I missed sleeping on a mattress.

As soon as we were ready, Link and I began asking around the town for directions to Death Mountain. We were eventually pointed towards a gate that was being watched by a trio of guards. Two of them were positioned next to the gate's opening mechanism, the other was lazily standing in front of it, leaning on his spear. None of them looked very professional. Both me and my companion stood there for a few moments, before the guard who was leaning on his spear noticed us. Quickly, he stood straight, and saluted.

"Good day young children! What bring you here?" He asked. He was clearly embarrassed about being caught loafing around. Link confidently stepped forward with a small smile on his face.

"We're here under orders from Princess Zelda to go and visit the Gorons. It's very important that we are allowed to climb the mountain!" Link said. The guard stood there for a few moments, and laughed. Link raised an eyebrow, not understanding why the guard didn't believe him.

"Ok, ok kid. Are you done playing knight? If the princess really needed someone to do something for her she'd be sending someone with a bit more experience under their belt," The guard said. I nudged Link, and when he looked at me I nodded. Link got the message, and pulled out the letter.

"I'm sure Zelda would also give this person a letter that proves that they are working on her behalf wouldn't she?" Link asked. He held out the envelope, and the guard stared at it for a few moments. He was still chuckling, and he took the letter from Link in order to read it.

"Ok let's see... Oh my, this _is_ a letter from the princess! Uhhh Let's see here... blah blah blah, these boys are called Link and Dante, blah blah blah... Under orders to save the worl- HAHAHAHAHA!" The guard bust out into a hysterical laugh. His friends by the opening mechanism asked to see the letter, and after he gave it to them, the trio was laughing. I felt my face going a bit hot, I really didn't like it when people laughed at me.

"Ok, ok. So you're telling me that the two of you are heroes, and that you're going to visit the Gorons to save the kingdom?" The guard asked. He clearly still thought that this was funny.

"Yes, now will you please open the gate?" I asked. I didn't want to stay here any longer. The guard thought for a few moments, and shrugged.

"Sure, whatever. I don't expect you kids to stay on that mountain for very long anyways. Once you notice that it's still an active volcano, you'll come running back in no time," He said. He smacked the ground with the butt of his spear, and his buddies, who were still laughing, opened the gate.

"Thank you!" I said sarcastically. The guard grinned.

"Don't let me keep you here, Mr. Hero," He said. Link grimaced at him, and we both walked down the path that led up the mountain.

"Well that went well," Navi said. Link rolled his eyes, and I groaned out loud.

"This is what I hate about being a kid! No one takes you seriously!" I almost shouted. To Link and Navi, it might have sounded like a typical complaint from a kid, but I was actually wishing that I was 18 again.

"Don't worry, you'll grow up eventually," Link said. I shrugged.

"Yeah well, let's just say that I've already done a lot of growing. I don't feel like doing any more," I replied. I realized that my fit was fairly juvenile, so I tried my hardest to reel it back in.

We kept on walking up the path, before something red and scary jumped in the middle of the path. Link and I both jumped back in surprise. It was a monster that looked like a four legged insect. The weird thing about it was that it had a single eye, which looked more like that of a reptile. The creature's legs were covered in spikes, and I made sure to remind myself that I did not want them to be touching me.

"Monsters!" Link shouted. He drew his Kokiri sword and Deku Shield. I stalled for a second, and grabbed my Bo. The creature leaped towards us, but didn't reach us yet. I gibbered madly, clearly wanting to kill us.

I glanced at my Bo, then back at Link's sword and shield. Sure, I had a range advantage, but a blunt Bo staff couldn't cut up a creepy spider-monster into tiny pieces. Probably because it was a blunt weapon. I even doubted if I would be able to pack enough punch to hurt that thing with a strike, considering it was covered in an exo-skeleton.

"The eye! It's unarmored!" Navi shouted. Link nodded, and stepped forward to meet the creature. The monster jumped at him, but Link raised his shield. He collapsed onto the ground as the monster landed on top of him, but the Deku Shield protected its user from harm. As the creature raised a spiky leg to strike, Link skillfuly stabbed it in the eye with his blade. Blue blood squirted from the wound and the creature backed away from Link in an instant.

The monster's angry gibbering turned into a high-pitched squeak as it began retreating. Link didn't pursue it, but kept his shield at the ready in case it decided to attack again. I realized that my hands were gripping my Bo extremely tightly, and that my legs were shaking a bit. I shook my head, and took a step forward.

"Sorry for not helping you," I said. I was feeling a lot of shame. What if, when Link was knocked down, he dropped his sword? My cowardice would have gotten him killed, or seriously hurt.

"Don't worry about it. I wasn't in danger anyways. Monsters like these are no problem," Link said. He told me to stay behind him, and to only help if things got extremely serious. I knew he was trying to protect me, but I ended up feeling even worse about myself.

We kept on going a bit more carefully this time. Every time a pebble would fall, we would stop and wait for something to jump out. We came across a giant boulder that was blocking a cave entrance, and in front of it were 2 of those bug monsters. This time, I decided to do something.

I slapped myself in the face, and took a few deep breaths. Link stepped forward, ready to meet the monsters in battle. I tried to follow, but my legs were frozen. I desperately tried to think of a way to get moving, and finally came up with a plan.

"Navi!" I said in a weak voice. Navi flew up to me, and looked a bit worried.

"Dante? It's ok. Link can handle it. Is this your first time seeing monsters?" She asked. I didn't bother answering.

"Tell me I'm a coward for not fighting them," I ordered her.

"What?" She asked. Link was battling with one of the monsters. He cut off one of its legs, but this time the creature didn't back down.

'Do it!" I shouted. Navi hesitated.

"Dante, you're a coward for not fighting those monsters," She said in a robotic voice. It was exactly what I needed. Thanks to my old habit, I charged the creature that was sneaking up behind Link with a savage yell. The monster turned around, and was stunned for a few moments.

I took the opportunity to jab it in the eye with my Bo. The creature yelped loudly, and tried backing away, but I wasn't going to let it escape. I chased after it, and whenever it got in range, I smacked it on the back with my Bo. Every time the wood collided with the monster's exoskeleton, a loud _clack_ resonated in the air. I chased the monster around in circles, hitting it again and again. Finally, the creature stopped running, kicked me in a similar manner that a horse kicks, and ran up the mountain. The kick knocked me flat on my back, and winded me. I lied there for a few moments, and got up.

What I saw was best described as bizarre. Both Link _and _the creature that he was fighting were staring at me. A few moments passed and Link struck a final blow on the monster. The beast never even saw it coming, and didn't even attempt to dodge.

"Ok, I think I'm good with fighting these things now," I said.

"Uh huh..." Link responded. He walked by me, and we continued to make our way up the mountain.

We didn't run into any more monsters as we continued to climb the mountain. The largest threats that presented themselves to us were strange looking round plants, and a rolling boulder that almost crushed us on its way down. The two of us had to dive out of its way in order to avoid it. It kept going past us, but after a few moments, a loud explosion was heard. Link looked at me with a curious expression on his face. I was also wondering why the rock exploded.

We turned around, and saw that what rolled past us wasn't a rock, but a Goron. He was lying on his back in a daze, with a few minor burns and many bruises all over his body. He got up and dusted himself, but still looked very dazed.

"Did I make it?" He asked. Link walked up to the Goron, a smile on his face. He wasn't the only one seeing a Goron for the first time. My mouth was hanging open.

The Goron looked like it did in the game. But seeing it in real life was truly an experience. Its skin had an almost sandy texture, and the plates on its back looked like actual rock. Its eyes were completely black, and it looked a bit overweight, but that was most likely because I was watching it as a human, and thus comparing its natural proportions to those of other humans.

"Are you ok?" Link asked. The Goron looked at him, and blinked a few times.

"I think so. Did I make it?" It asked again. Link raised an eyebrow.

"Make what?" Navi asked. The Goron looked at Navi, and a whimsical smile spread on its face.

"Ohh! A fairy!" It said. I coughed, and asked Navi's question again.

"I was trying to blow up the rock that's blocking the entrance to the Dondogo Caverns," The Goron explained. Link asked him why he was doing that.

"Well... It's because Gorons eat rocks, and the best rocks on the mountain are in that cavern. Recently, however, a large boulder appeared and sealed it away from us. We fear that we'll all starve if we can't get the cavern open again," The Goron continued. Link looked like he was genuinely concerned for the Goron, and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't. That being said, I silently wondered why the Gorons didn't just try to eat their way through the boulder. When I asked, I was told that not all types of rock were edible for Gorons.

"Can you lead us to your leader? It's important. After we meet with him and get what we want, we'll try to help get rid of that rock," Link said. The Goron thought for a few moments, and nodded happily.

"Certainly! Right this way young ones!" It said. It led us further up the mountain, and eventually we were led into a large cavern. There was a lot of torch light illuminating the interior, and what a sight it was.

The entire Goron city was right there before my eyes. It was a set of rings that were carved along the walls of the cavern, with small doorways that led into homes, shops or inns. Many signs were adorning the market caves, while homes were sealed by doors. Above us was an altar was was suspended by three ropes. There was nothing on it, which made it seem out of place.

The Goron led us to the bottom level of the caves. We had to go through many smaller tunnels and staircases in order to reach it. Link was marvelling at everything we were walking by, and I asked the Goron about how they sculpted everything in the city. The Goron told me that all of the rock that they ended up chipping away from the walls in order to create the homes, shops, and tunnels was stored as emergency food. It wasn't very nutritious rock and they tasted horrible, but they were edible at least. So they only ever ate them in times of crisis. In terms of actual construction planning, I was told that the Goron people were some of the finest architects and mechanics in all of the land. If anyone needed a complex piece of equipment, or wanted an expert opinion on designing a building, they would usually go see the Gorons for help.

We finally made it to the bottom level of the city, and were led into a small home. The Goron knelled in front of a larger one, and informed him that we were visitors who needed to speak with him. The larger Goron had a crazy beard and hairstyle... Or at least, I think they were called a "beard" and "hair". The growths on this specimen's head looked more like flexible rock formations. It was kind of strange to see.

"Well? What brings you two here? Make it snappy! We're in the middle of a crisis here," He said. His voice was incredibly gruff, and one could easily hear how worried he was about his people.

Link hesitated for a few moments, and began to talk. He showed the Goron the letter that we got from Princess Zelda, and told him that we needed to retrieve the second spiritual stone. The larger Goron scratched his chin for a few moments, and shook his head.

"I'm not going to give you the spiritual stone," He said. Both Link and I were a bit shocked.

"Why not?" Link asked.

"Please, Mr. Goron sir?" I asked. The Goron gave me a hard stare.

"The name's Darunia, kid. And I can't give you the spiritual stone because someone else came here and asked for it as well," Darunia explained. Link raised an eyebrow.

"Was he called Ganondorf, by any chance?" Link asked. Darunia thought for a moment, and finally nodded.

"Yep. He said that if we gave him the stone, he'd unblock the Dondogo caverns for us. I told him that I'd only consider giving the stone to him if he actually did something about the rock first, but he never did anything. Eventually he left, saying that we'd regret not handing it over to him eventually," Darunia recounted. But he didn't stop there.

"Funny, the cavern was sealed just a few days before he arrived. I actually think that he had something to do with it. It wouldn't surprise me if he put a few extra traps in there on top of blocking the entrance, just to make our lives even more miserable!" Darunia said. He began pacing around the small home.

"What if we unblocked the caverns for you?" I asked. Darunia looked at me, and smiled.

"Trying to make the same deal that he wanted to make?" Darunia asked. I shook my head.

"We'll unblock the caverns, and then you can give us what we want. Heck, you can even send us in there to make sure that there aren't any traps or monsters!" I continued. I wanted to make this deal sound as sweet as possible.

Darunia considered it for a few moments. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright, kids. You've got yourselves a deal. If you boys can manage to unblock the caverns and make sure that its safe to go in, I'll give you what you want," He said. I smiled, and thanked him for his kindness.

I got up to leave, but Darunia stopped us. He went to the back of his home, and brought out a small bracelet.

"Here, take this," He said. He tossed the bracelet in our direction, and Link caught it. Link observed it for a few moments before Darunia explained what it was.

"That there is a Goron's Bracelet. It's enchanted and gives it wearer the strength of a Goron. It will also resize itself to fit your wrist. We've got plenty of Bomb Flowers growing all over our city, and directly outside, but a normal human isn't strong enough to pluck them," Darunia said. Link put on the bracelet, and studied it again when it readjusted its size.

"Cool," He said. We both thanked Darunia, and walked back outside the Goron city. We didn't really say anything to each other as we walked out. We made our way to a cliff that overlooked the path we took to get up here, and lo and behold, we saw the large rock that we noticed on our way up.

"Recon that that's the entrance to the caverns?" Link asked, pointing at the rock. I nodded. Link looked at our surroundings, and brought my attention to a plant that was growing nearby. It was very strange, and at first I didn't recognize it. It was only after I stared at it from up close, that I realized it was a Bomb Flower.

"Is that a Bomb Flower?" I asked. Link had a wicked grin on his face.

"Only one way to find out," He said. He grabbed the plant, and was about to pull on it, before I stopped him.

"Wait, what if that actually is a bomb flower? What are you going to do with it once you pluck it?" I asked. Link thought for a moment.

"I'm going to throw it off the edge of the cliff, and onto the rock that's blocking the entrance to the caverns," He said. I walked up to the edge, and looked.

"What if that single Bomb Flower isn't enough?" I asked. Link furrowed his brow, and Navi decided to pitch in.

"In that case, can't you use your Paradox Key to weaken the boulder?" She asked. My eyes went wide, and I reached into my pocket. I pulled out the key, and checked the charge.

_Paradox Key energy level at 8%._ It said. I bit my lip, unsure if that would be enough to weaken the boulder significantly. That said, it was the only way to ensure success. I made my decision, and told Link to wait for my signal. I made my way down the mountain, and paid close attention to my surroundings in order to be ready in case more of those spider monsters showed up.

Luckily, I made it to the boulder without having to use my Bo. Once I reached the rock, I pulled out the Paradox Key, and placed it against the obstacle.

"Make this thing as brittle as possible. A single Bomb Flower should be enough to blow it up," I instructed the Paradox key. It glowed softly, and after a few moments, the Key turned grey. I looked at it, and saw that it had completely drained itself.

I took a few steps away from the rock, and waved at Link, who was staring down at me from the top of the cliff. I saw him step away from the edge, and took that as my cue to get the heck away as quickly as possible. I did not want to get blown up today.

I sprinted as quickly as I could until I was sure that I was a safe distance away. When I turned around, the Bomb Flower landed right next to the rock. A few moments later, the plant detonated, and the entire boulder crumbled into small pieces. My jaw dropped when I saw this.

I head Link cheer from the top of the cliff. He left the cliff face, and I didn't hear anything from him for a good long while. Eventually he came down to meet me and I was surprised to see that a few Gorons were accompanying him. I raised an eyebrow, and asked him why they were here.

"After we blew up the rock, I decided to go and get them. Now they know that the cavern is unblocked, all they need to do is wait for us to give them the all clear!" Link explained. I smiled, and held a thumb up for the Gorons.

"Don't worry! Unlike Ganondorf, we're actually trustworthy and we get things done!" I told them. Link nodded happily, and led the way into the caverns. Most of the Gorons stayed outside, waiting for us to give them the all clear. A few of them decided to follow us in, thinking that nothing too dangerous would be waiting for us.

I prayed that whatever was waiting for us in those caverns wasn't too nasty. I really didn't want to die. I hoped that Link would be able to protect me, while at the same time I was hoping that I wouldn't be completely useless either. I took a few deep breaths, and followed Link into the caverns.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Second Spiritual Stone

**Note: Short Chapter, I know. But I'm not much of an action writer so I wanted to keep the dungeon crawling on the brief side of things. Hope you like it, and once again, let me know if you find mistakes! **

I've noticed it for a long time now, but the game got quite a lot of things wrong when it came to the actual world of Hyrule. Of course, locations would be larger, distances would be greater, and days and nights would be longer than in the game. But surely monsters would be even more dangerous than they were in-game right? I mean, we're talking about real claws and teeth. The ability to breath fire, crawl up and down walls, or to breathe underwater.

The monsters in the Zelda universe were anything but friendly, and even in the games they were dangerous for normal people. That being said, the video game version of Link was able to shrug off sword strikes to the face as if nothing happened, which does make the creatures seem less dangerous.

So can someone please tell me why the real life version of a Dondogo larva was _less_ dangerous than its in-game depiction? In the game, they burrowed through solid rock, and jumped at Link in an attempt to bite his face off. Here, they were minor annoyances. Sure, their teeth were sharp, and they were a bit aggressive, but they couldn't seriously harm anyone. A single strike with my Bo would send them scurrying off in fright. Link didn't even bother to attack them, and merely kick at any that decided to leap at him.

The Gorons who decided to accompany us into the caverns were already celebrating. Some of them already got to work on gathering rocks from the many tunnels from the caverns. A few kept on following us, warning us about the adult Dondogos that were staying deeper in the caves.

A few of the Gorons noticed that the Dondogo larva population was much larger than it originally was the last time they were here. A few of them concluded that Ganondorf must have had something to do with the growing population.

Just like I assume, the Caverns didn't look like anything that was portrayed in the game. In the game, there were many doors and puzzles that one had to solve in order to get from one chamber to the next. In the real Dondogo Caverns, it just looked like any other volcanic cavern that existed in the world. It was hot and stuffy, and after a good hour of sweating profusely, I decided to take off my shirt and stick it in my backpack.

There was a bit of light in the caves. The sources included a few torches, and a few lava streams. Either way, staying in the caverns was probably the least enjoyable experience of my life. It was even worse than crawling through that drain at Hyrule Castle.

"Everything looks fine," Link said. I nodded, I didn't see any signs from the King Dondogo, the boss of this area in the game. Navi, on the other hand wasn't sure. She kept on telling us that we should sweep the caverns in their entirety just to be safe.

Eventually, the Gorons that were following us decided to join the rest in collecting rocks. They made sure to warn us once again about the Dondogos, and said that if one did attack, that we should target its tail in order to hurt it.

Once we were alone, Link took the lead, and almost dragged me from one chamber to the next. We talked a bit, but the topic of our conversations usually covered rocks or caves. I was starting to get pretty bored until a Dondogo Larva sneaked up on me and clamped its jaws on my left hand.

In an instant, I was howling with pain and waving my hand around like an idiot. The larva didn't let go, and hang on to my hand for dear life. Link and Navi began to laugh as I began running around the chamber, begging for someone to get the small lizard off of my hand.

Eventually, Navi finally had enough of my wailing, and knocked the small lizard off for me. You heard me, I needed a tiny fairy to save me. After the small lizard scurried away, I cradled my left hand in my right one, and thanked Navi.

"Don't mention it," Navi said. Link rolled his eyes, and told me that I was exaggerating when the small Dondogo bit me.

"Why don't you try getting bitten by one?" I replied with a bit of venom. In response, Link smiled and held up his own hand. A small Dondogo Larva was hanging off of it, and Link wasn't even flinching.

"Guys, stop arguing. I hear something big moving around," Navi said. Link and I both froze, and strained our ears. We didn't hear anything.

"Are you sure?" I asked. Navi hovered in the air for a few seconds.

"I can't hear it anymore... Strange," She said. Link looked a bit worried, but definitely not scared.

Navi directed us in the direction of the sound. It was from an adjacent tunnel to the chamber that we were in. There were a few strange rock formations, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

"I think I'm going to rest for a bit," I said. Link sighed. It didn't even seem like the heat in the area was affecting him at all. He decided to stay on watch, while I sat down on top of one of the rock formations. Boy oh boy was that a big mistake.

Almost instantly, the rock bucked when I sat down on it. I was hurled from my seat onto the ground, and as soon as I turned on my back, I had a really ugly lizard's face a few inches away from my own. This one was not as small as the others we've encountered, and he looked a lot more dangerous.

"Uhmm... help?" I squeaked in terror. Link's reaction was lighting quick. Almost immediately, He jumped on the lizard's back and smacked its head with the pommel of his Kokiri Sword. The lizard backed away from me, and tried to buck Link off of its back.

I crawled away from the monster, and got a good look at it. I realized that we were looking at a fully grown Dondogo. As it struggled to shake Link off of its back, it let out a jet of flame from its mouth, hoping to burn the boy. I was glad that it didn't seem to know how to shoot flames out of the back of its head.

I quickly stood up, and Link finally got off of the Dondogo's back. He slammed the flat of his blade against his shield to keep the Dondogo's attention on him. The Lizard's back was facing me, and I noticed how much its scales looked like rock. The only unarmoured part of its body was the tail, which actually kind of squishy.

With a cry, I raised my Bo like a spear and jabbed it into the Dondogo's tail. Almost immediately, the Dondogo let out a high-pitched squeal and ran away yelping like a wounded dog. Both Link and I were quite surprised by the reaction. I didn't think hitting it in the tail would be _that_ effective at driving it away.

Link didn't chase after the lizard, instead he let out a nervous laugh.

"I guess their tales are very sensitive," He said. I nodded.

"Yeah, no kidding. I think I only bruised it at most," I replied. We were about to continue with our sweep when he heard someone's screams echoing in the caverns. Link and I stared at each other with wide eyes, and began running back the way we came in order to see what was going on.

The problem with being a surface dweller, however, was that you're not exactly at home when you're underground. Within a few moments of trying to reach the source of the screams, we found that we were lost in the caverns, and could no longer figure out where we were going. A very loud roar echoed throughout the caverns, and a few high pitched cries followed soon after.

"What's going on?" I asked. Link didn't respond, and kept on running. Navi was the one to answered my question.

"I'm certain that its something like the creature that killed the Deku tree," She said. I completely forgot about Gohma for a few moments, so my response was something like "Huh?"

Navi told me that she'd tell me about it later. As we kept on trying to figure out the caverns, we were eventually ambushed by a pair of monsters. They dropped down from the ceiling, and Link barely had enough time to push me out of the way of what would have been a lethal knife to the throat. When I regained my bearings, I saw Link facing off against two bipedal lizards who were wielding knifes. It took me a few moments to remember what they were called.

"Link put your back against something to keep them from circling around you!" Navi shouted. Link nodded, and back peddled to a nearby wall. By this time I was standing, and was brandishing my Bo towards the nearest creature. I was afraid, but I knew that if I turned by back on these things, I was as good as dead.

As I have come to expect from my green-clad companion, he didn't seem the least bit scared by the presence of two man-sized, knife wielding lizards. His face took on a concentrated look, and his eyes scanned every movement that our foes were making. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out how to take a swing at my opponent without letting chop up my wooden Bo with its knife.

Link charged his monster and rolled beneath its attack. As soon as he got on his knees, he struck at the monter's thigh with his sword. Green blood fountained from the wound and the Lizafoe screeched in pain. Link got up and struck at the monter's wrist, disarming it.

My opponent decided to go on the offensive. He came at me with a few quick strikes and didn't give me enough time to retaliate. That being said, thanks to the way I was keeping my Bo's tip pointed towards my enemy, he couldn't get close enough to me without trying to knock my weapon out of his way. Once I was certain that I had a good sense of the monter's attack patterns, I lunged a tit and tried to jab the tip of the Bo in its throat.

It was a bad call, the Lizafoe, which was probably profiling me while it was taking its earlier swings caught my Bo in its free hand and yanked it away from me. I don't know why I did what I did after that, but it was probably because the adrenaline that was coursing through my veins was preventing me from being afraid. I jumped at the Lizafoe, and slammed my body against it. The good news was that my attack caught the monster completely off guard, and it fell on its back while dropping its knife. The bad news what that I ended up falling on top of a seriously angry, and sharp toothed lizard.

I tried to pull myself away from the monster, but it grabbed on to me. It opened it mouth in order to bite my face off, but luckily, Link got to me on time and drove his sword into its mouth. The Kokiri blade scratched my cheek, but it didn't do any serious damage to me.

I untangled myself from the dead Lizafoe's limbs, and retrieved my Bo. I was trembling, the fear of the encounter catching up with me mere moments after the battle ended.

"Th-thanks!" I shouted. I hugged Link as hard as I could. Link was surprised by the action, and stood there awkwardly as I squeezed the life out of him.

"No problem?" He said. I let go of him, and didn't feel embarrassed about being on the verge of tearing up.

"You saved my life!" I exclaimed. Link nodded, and told me to focus on what we had to do. I took a few deep breaths, and nodded at him once I felt like I was ok.

We didn't even take two steps from the chamber before a Goron found us. When I saw him, I became incredibly worried about the rest of the group. He had a few minor burns all over his body, and a single claw mark painted his chest in crimson.

"There you are young one! You have to hurry, I don't think the rest of us will last long against that monster!" It said. We began following the Goron as quickly as possible, and Navi asked it what was going on.

"Normally, Dondogos aren't very dangerous for Gorons. Their fire breath barely affects us, and their claws can't easily penetrate our hides. But this one... I'm telling you, this is no ordinary Dondogo!" It said. My pace slowed when I began to realize what he was talking about.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"I think that man who came here did something to one of the Dondogos. This one's tail is armoured, and it does not feel pain. Its claws can easily cut through our skin, and it attempted to feast on one of us," The Goron explained. As we kept on following him, I reached into my pocked. I pulled out the Paradox Key, and cursed when I saw that its charge was still at 0%.

"How can we kill it?" I asked. The Goron told us that he doubted that we would be able to take it out, and instead said that out main concern should be to lead the Gorons who accompanied us into the caverns to safety.

We made it to a large open cavern, and were greeted with the sight of Many Gorons locked in battle with a giant Dondogo. One Goron hurled a Bomb Flower at the monster, only to have it blow up harmlessly against its hard flesh. Others were escaping into the tunnels. Most of the Gorons were wounded, and didn't look like they had much fight left in them.

Link saw the situation, and decided to divert the monster's attention away from the Gorons. What he did made me want to strangle him.

"HEY!" He shouted as loudly as he possibly could. The Dondogo heard him, and glared at him menacingly. The beast began walking up to us, and the Gorons began retreating out of the caverns.

"Link, remind me to kill you when this is all over," I said. Link didn't respond, and darted to the right. I darted to the left, and prayed that the Dondogo would go after Link. Apparently, I looked tastier than the green boy, so the Dondogo began turning towards me.

I let out a string of curses as the Dondogo began inhaling loudly, and breathed fire in my direction. I barely managed to get behind a sizable rock to avoid being turned into a 12 year old boy sized barbecue.

Link threw a Bomb Flower at the monster. I heard the explosion, and the flames died out as soon as the Dondogo began turning its back on me to face my friend. I looked from my hiding place, and saw that Link already picked another Bomb Flower.

"Link! Throw it in its mouth when it begins inhaling for another fire breath!" I shouted. Link nodded, and the Dondogo began chasing after him. Link had to throw his Bomb Flower in the monster's face in order to avoid blowing himself up, and I decided to get its attention again. I silently cursed at myself for being stupid and throwing my sense of self preservation out the window.

"Look at me you ugly mother-," I began. The Monster's paw slammed into my chest, and I was knocked back a few feet. All of the air was knocked out of my lungs, and I heard a snap when I landed. I knew that one of my ribs were broken.

I gasped as I tried to breath. My breaths were short and laboured. The Dondogo looked at me, its small beady eyes focusing on me with the intent to kill. It opened its mouth, and Link appeared right in front of me.

With a mighty yell, he threw his Bomb Flower right into the Dondogo's toothy maw. The plant made its way into the monster's throat, and lodged itself there. The monster closed its mouth in surprise, and tried to swallow the bomb.

After a few seconds, there was a muffled _boom_, and the monster's throat actually expanded a bit. After the flower exploded, the monster began retreating away from us. Its breathing was ragged, and blood was pouring out of its mouth.

Llink picked another flower, and the Dondogo roared in defiance, only to get another explosive thrown into its mouth. This time, after it went off, the Dondogo collapsed on the ground. I heard it gurgling, it sounded like it was chocking on something. I didn't even want to know what it must be like to try and breath through the shattered remains of your wind-pipe. I actually felt sorry for the monster, but reminded myself that it tried to kill us a few moments ago.

Link helped me up, and I groaned in agony as he supported my weight against him. He led me through the tunnels and somehow found the exit. We were bruised and battered, but alive. I was very happy to see the outside world again. The wounded Gorons and the others who were waiting outside of the caves all leaned towards us when they saw us emerging.

Link helped me sit down on a rock, and turned towards our audience. He stepped out towards them, and raised his sword.

"The beast is slain! The Dondogo caverns are safe!" He shouted. A few moments of shocked silence passed. I don't think the Gorons believed us. A few of the healthy ones went into the caverns, and once they returned, they excitedly confirmed the claim.

In an instant, the mountainside erupted into a cacophony of cheers and shouts. Many Gorons began to weep with joy, and gathered around us, offering their thanks.

I don't know what happened after that, most likely because I ended up losing consciousness. When I awoke, I was in a stone bed, with Link sitting at my side. Darunia was there, grinning widely and explaining to Link what our actions meant for the Goron people.

"You do not know how many lives the two of you save. We were certain that we would have a food crisis on our hands soon," Darunia said. I tried to sit up, but my broken rib flared in pain, forcing me back down. Link looked at me and smiled.

"It's ok, we did it," He said. I rolled my eyes, and told him to tell me something I don't know.

"Does this mean you will give us the spiritual stone?" Navi asked the Goron. Darunia smiled.

"I tell you, you boys sure are made of strong stuff. You are worthy to call yourselves Gorons!" He said. Navi was about to ask her question again, but Darunia hushed her.

"Before I give you guys anything, what do you say to becoming my sworn blood brothers?" Darunia asked. Link furrowed his brow, and looked at me. I shrugged painfully.

"Yeah man, whatever you want," I said. I wasn't really paying attention to anything that was going on. I was more preoccupied with the pain in my chest.

Darunia didn't seem to realize that I wasn't understanding what he was saying, and his smile seemingly got bigger.

"Well then, Link and Dante, I present you with the sacred stone of the Gorons. The Spiritual Stone of Fire!" He said. He lifted his arms up in the air, and a flash temporarily blinded us. After out eyes readjusted themselves to the room, Darunia was holding out the red stone. Link hesitated for a moment, and grabbed it.

Like the other Spiritual Stone, this one was smaller than the one that was presented in the game. That being said, it was also much more beautiful in real life. Its red colour was so pure, and drew my eyes in like no other piece of jewlery ever could.

Darunia got up to leave. Before stepping out of the room, though, he turned back to us with a smile.

"Feel free to stay here for a few days and recover from your wounds. If you want, I can have my finest healers tend to you and speed up your recovery time dramatically," Darunia said. Link thanked him, and Darunia left.

"We did it Dante! I can't believe we pulled it off!" Link said. I nodded, but without much enthusiasm. Something about this victory felt hollow. It took me a few minutes in order to figure out what it was, but then I realized it was because I realized that I wasn't indestructible. I almost died in those caverns numerous times, and the realization was catching up to me as I was lying there in the bed. But even that wasn't the entirety of what was bothering me. It also realized that I should have died in those caverns.

"I don't know Link. I'm more scared now than I've ever been in my life," I replied. Link looked at me. He didn't seem to understand what I was afraid of. Of course he didn't understand, this guy didn't feel fear.

"What are you afraid of? We did it! Sure, you got hurt, but you're still alive aren't you?" He said. I gritted my teeth and sat up despite the pain that was burning in my ribs.

"I don't know why I'm alive. Humans aren't as sturdy as Gorons. When that monster took a swing at me, I should have died," I said. Something about my survival didn't make any sense, my body should have been broken by that strike, yet here I was, with a broken rib. It was a minor injury compared to what should have happened.

Link realized what I was saying, and went quiet. Navi flew up to me, and examined me for a few moments.

"Are you sure you're human? I mean, I know I'm not the first to point this out, but your ears aren't pointed," She said. I shook my head.

"No, I'm human. I know for a fact that I should not have been able to survive that blow," I said. Navi went quiet, and Link held out something for me. It was one of our Lon Lon milk bottles.

"You know, Talon was right about this milk having special properties. My injuries recovered in no time at all once I drank some. Here, take it," He said. I sighed. Of course Link was going to change the subject of the conversation. No one would be able to answer why I survived, so why should we stay on that topic?

I took the bottle from Link, and opened it. The milk wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm either. It didn't taste the same as ordinary milk either, and I didn't like it that much. I still forced myself to drink everything that was in my bottle. As I drank, I began thinking about something the Paradox Key told me when I was first brought here.

_Modifying Subject's biology_...

I froze. Did the Paradox Key do more than simply make me younger? I quickly gave the bottle back to Link and grabbed the Paradox Key.

"What did you do to my body?" I asked it. It vibrated a bit, and began floating. It didn't move the way it did when I first came here, its flight suggested that it was very weak. Probably because it didn't have much of a charge in it. I completely forgot that Link and Navi were still in the room.

_Subject's body has been modified to fit within this world's time line. Certain precautions were taken to ensure maximum survivability._ Was all is said before it retreated back into my pocket.

Link and Navi glanced at each other. I realized that they were still here.

"Sorry... It's just, the Paradox Key is the reason I'm in Hyrule. It brought me here," I answered. Link nodded, and Navi asked me what it meant when it talked about precautions. I shrugged, but told her that I think the reason I survived was a direct consequence of those precautions.

Link decided to leave me in my room to recover. A few Goron doctors came to visit me and made me drink a red fluid that I assumed was the real life version of the game's red potion. They told me to rest, and that by the time I woke up in the morning, I would be well enough to leave the city to continue on my journey.

As I lied there, I wondered about whether or not I actually wanted to continue following Link. My experience in the Dondogo Caverns wasn't something that I would call enjoyable, but at the same time, I didn't want to abandon my friend either. He was a pretty cool guy, and fun to be around. I grabbed the Paradox Key and held it up toward the ceiling.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked. After waiting for a few moments for a response that never came, I put it away, and closed my eyes. In the morning, I would follow Link back down the mountain, and I would continue helping him with his quest. My life was in his debt, and I had to pay it back.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Princess Ruto

**Note: This chapter really gave me a hard time. I first uploaded it with a bunch of embarrassing spelling mistakes, and after I fixed them, the damn thing didn't upload properly. So this is probably my 6th attempt to get this chapter up. Hopefully it works.**

We made it to Kakariko shortly after waking up that morning. We said our farewells to the Gorons, and when asked if we would ever return, told them that we would definitely try. Link wanted to stay for a few days in order to hang out a bit longer with them, but I was really insistent on leaving as soon as possible. Although I decided to stay with him, I didn't want to spend any more time on Death Mountain. The memories of the Dondogo Caverns were still very fresh in my mind, and the entire location reminded me of my very close call.

When we made it to the gate that separated Death Mountain from Kakariko village, we noticed that it was closed. I raised an eyebrow, and Link began knocking on it.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Open the gate!" He said. We heard a few startled yelps, and the gate opened a few moments later. I sighed in annoyance when I saw that the three guards we met on our way to Death Mountain were still posted here.

At first, they didn't recognize us, but their jaws dropped when they saw us. The one at the gate began stuttering. I don't even think he could believe that two kids managed to survive the mountain.

"Good morning gents!" I said while putting on a fake smile. We walked over to the other side of the gate, and the guards took a few steps back. Both Link and I were still covered in bruises, so it was clear that we had been in a fight.

"You're... How did you two survive up there?" The guard asked. Link shrugged.

"It wasn't really that dangerous, to be honest. And the Gorons were actually quite friendly," Link said. One of the guards laughed.

"Of course the Gorons are friendly, how else to they expect to get any business up there? I mean how did you two kids survive all the monsters up there," He asked. I decided to reply.

"Maybe they thought we looked scary. They didn't bug us for very long after we chased them off," I answered. The Guards were all shaking their heads. One of them was muttering about how he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Link was smiling, he was actually enjoying watching them behaving this way.

"Oh would you look at the time? We got to go guys, it was nice chatting with you, but you all know how it is. We're heroes, and we've got hero things to do," I said. Link tried to stop himself from laughing, and the guards were all speechless. We left them and walked while holding our chins high. Once we were sure we were out of earshot, we began laughing out loud.

"Oh man, I wonder what they'll tell their friends when they get home tonight," Link said. I tried to calm down my laughter, and nodded in agreement.

"Serves them right for making fun of us a few days ago," I replied. Link took a few deep breaths, and finally stopped laughing.

We made our way through the village, and stopped by a shop to buy ourselves a map of Hyrule Field. After that, we left the village, and found a spot in the grass to sit at while we studied the map. According to the parchment, the stream that we were close to originated from Zora's domain, but the way into Zora's domain from it was not easily reachable for humans. Lake Hylia, on the other hand, proved to be a much safer route for travelling merchants.

I was surprised by how much trading was going on between the Hylians, the Gorons, and the Zoras. I knew that it wasn't supposed to be surprising, considering that this world had its own economy and people, but when playing the game, I never got a true sense of how alive this world was.

We planned our journey to the Zora's domain, and decided that we should restock our food supplies by stopping by the Lon Lon Ranch again, since it was in the path that we decided to take to reach Zora's domain.

"Do you think Zelda knows we got the second spiritual stone?" Link asked. I shook my head.

"No, unless she's psychic, there is no way she knows," I replied. Link began to pout slightly.

"I wish we could tell her that we're one step close to stopping Ganondorf," He said. I laughed a bit.

"I wish I could tell her you've got a major crush on her," I answered. Link's eyes widened.

"I do not!"

"You totally do!" I laughed. I began running away from Link, and he began chasing me. It didn't take long for him to catch up to me, and he tackled me to the ground. I yelped when my ribs began aching again.

"Link! I have a broken rib! Get off me!" I shouted. Link stepped back, and helped me up. I held on to my side, and groaned. Even after taking a red potion, my injury still didn't completely heal, and it hurt whenever I touched it or when a boy who wears green tackles me to the ground.

It took us a few days to reach Lon Lon Ranch, and we were lucky to get there when we did, because our supply of dried fruits exhausted itself the night before we got there. I was happy about not having to eat those disgusting things any more, but Link was sad when we had to skip breakfast that morning.

At the ranch, we caught ourselves up with Malon, Talon and Ingo. Ingo was still as grumpy as ever, but kept on saying that one day he'd become the owner of the ranch. Malon immediately wanted to borrow Link and take him to Epona, while I began discussing meal plans with Talon.

"I want to know if you have anything other than those dried fruits," I said. I made it clear for Talon that I did not want to buy more fruits. He didn't seem to catch on to the fact that I hated dried fruit, and instead offered to sell me some smoked meat.

I instantly jumped on the chance, telling him that I'd be happy to buy some. The sad part was that the smoked meat cost more than the fruits, so if I went for an all meat diet, we'd run out of food before reaching the Zora's domain. So in the end, I had to buy a few pieces of dried fruit along with some smoked meat. It made me sad that I couldn't rid myself from the worst crime that could have been done to a plant, but I figured that eating something that tasted awful was better than starving.

We stayed at the ranch for one night, and slept in the barn again. I also re-discovered that sleeping on hay was much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground, and slept better than I did during the few days it took for us to get here. When we left that morning, we tried to cover as much distance as possible.

We eventually came across a merchant's caravan that was also headed towards the lake in order to deliver a few items to a few customers, and they were kind enough to let us ride in their cart with them. It took a while, but we knew we were getting close to the lake when the air began to smell differently than it did in the rest of Hyrule.

It didn't smell like sea water, but It definitely didn't smell like we were in a grassy field anymore either. As the lake came into view, a breeze picked up, and I caught a strange smell. When I asked our driver about it, he told me that it was the smell of the Zora people. I looked out towards the lake, and saw a crowd of them gathered on the shore. Many of them were setting up a few stalls, and putting a few things up for sale, while others were walking out to meet with us.

The Zoras didn't wear any clothes, but they didn't have any noticeable genitalia that were showing either. Most of the ones that were present at this gathering were males, but a few females were also present. The females had a few flaps of skin, or fins, that covered a few parts of their bodies, most notably their nether regions. They were odd to look at, but they weren't ugly by any stretch of the imagination. I actually started feeling a bit embarrassed whenever I would see a female Zora.

As the driver began talking to the Zora that met us, Link and I got off the cart and made our way to the Lake's shore. Link was stopping at nearly every stall we would come across, and marvel at the wares that were for sale. I wondered why so many people and so many Zoras were here today, and when I asked, I was notified that these kinds of merchant gatherings were not very common. Usually, if one wanted to buy something from the Zoras, or sell something to them, they would have to do it through a messenger.

A few of the items that were on sale caught my eye. There was a guitar that was made with the skeleton of a large fish, a flute that was carved from a conch, and a few pearl necklaces for women. The only problem with what I was looking at was that it was all very expensive, and I didn't have any money left.

"Damn, I really want to buy something," I whined. Link laughed at me, and asked me what I wanted.

"Promise me you won't laugh?" I asked. Link promised, and I told him that I wanted to buy the guitar.

"Why?" He asked. I was actually surprised that he didn't laugh, and felt a bit more confident.

"Well, it's because you have your ocarina, and I don't have any special musical instrument. My uncle used to play guitar, and he taught me the basics. I just wanted something that I could play while you play on your Ocarina, you know?" I asked. Link nodded, but told me that we wouldn't be able to afford it. That's when I sly grin spread on my face.

"Or can we?" I asked. Link's smile dropped, and he shook his head.

"Don't you even think about it, Dante," He said. He grabbed my arm and began dragging me away from the crowd of merchants that were all busy discussing business with each other.

"Aww come on Link, it's part of who I am!" I complained as I struggled against his grip.

"Not when you're around me it isn't," He said. He turned me around.

"We're here to get to Zora's Domain and find the spiritual stone. If Gannondorft did anything to them, we'll help them deal with it, and then you can ask for a guitar, ok?" Link asked. I reluctantly agreed with him, and we made our way towards one of the Zora merchants.

"Uhmm... excuse me?" Link asked. The Zora looked at us, and smilled.

"Well hello there! How can I help you?" He asked. Link asked him how we could get to Zora's Domain. The merchant laughed.

"The only way for a human to make it to the Zora's Domain is to be carried there by a Zora. Your species is too slow when it comes to swimming, and you'd drown before reaching it," He said. Link seemed a bit discouraged, but asked him if he knew anyone who was willing to carry us there.

The merchant thought for a few moments, and shrugged.

"If you pay me I'll gladly carry you guys there at the end of the day," He said. Link stared at him for a few moments, and then turned to me.

"Ok, do your thing," He muttered. He clearly didn't want me to do it, but he didn't have a choice. He told the merchant that we would be right back. I cracked my knuckles, but before I could get to work, Navi interrupted me.

"Link! Show him the letter from Princess Zelda!" Navi said. Link dug the letter out of his belongings, and smacked his own forehead.

"I totally forgot about this thing!" He exclaimed. I began pouting when he led us back towards the merchant.

He showed him the letter from Princess Zelda, and the Zora read it attentively. He shrugged after reading it, and said that if the princess needed us to talk with their king, then he had no choice but to take us there. I was glad that he wasn't finding anything funny about it, unlike the guards in Kakariko who started laughing as soon as they saw it.

The Zora got one of his assistants to "hold the fort" while he walked us to the edge of the lake's waters. He explained to us that there was a tunnel at the bottom of the lake that led straight to the Zora's Domain, and that he would carry us through one at a time. He asked us to decide who would go first, and Link immediately pointed at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" I asked. Link sighed.

"Isn't it obvious? I don't trust you around these people. You'll probably go on a stealing spree while he's carrying me to Zora's Domain!" He said while pointing a finger at me.

"Ouch," I replied. The Zora laughed at our exchange. I faced the Zora, and nodded at him.

"Let's get this over with," I said. He picked me up, and carried me into the water. I winced when he did, and told him that I had a broken rib. After taking note of that, he readjusted his grip.

"Ok, take a deep breath, and exhale every now and then. Just don't get rid of all your air too quickly," He said. I followed his instructions, and as soon as I took my breath, I was dragged under the water at a blinding speed.

The sudden feeling of water in my eyes made me squeeze them shut. A bit of water got in my nose, but I made an effort not to open my mouth or let out too much air. I felt water rushing all around me, and couldn't hear much.

I felt my chest tightening a bit, and let out a bit of air from my nose. We didn't break the surface yet, and I was beginning to worry about my air supply. My eyes were still squeezed shit, and I let out more air. My lungs were starting to hurt, and my brain was begging for me to take a breath, yet still I refused to obey. I thought I would lose my mind, but eventually we broke the surface.

As soon as my head left the water, I greedily took a deep breath, and welcomed the air in my lungs. I was dragged onto a rocky shore, and I wiped the water from my eyes. When I opened them, the merchant was standing before me, and waved his hand towards the interior of the cavern.

"Welcome to Zora's Domain, human!" He said. I took a good look at my surroundings, and was amazed.

While the Goron city was entirely covered in rough rock walls, the Zora's Domain was very smooth. A few Stalagmite and Stalactites were positioned around the area, and like in the game, there was a large waterfall that was cascading into a very deep pool of water. A few Zoras were swimming in the pool, although most of them were children.

The merchant told me to stay where I was, and that he'd be back in a few minutes with my friend. He dived back into the pool, and I awkwardly sat there. I looked around, and saw a small Zora child who was staring at me from a few meters away.

"Hey," I said with a smile and a wave. The child dived into the water, almost as if he was afraid of me. I figured he never saw a human in his life before.

Waiting for Link to arrive got really boring, really quickly. I eventually got my hands on a few smooth and flat stones and began skipping them across the pool's waters in order to pass the time. A few of the kids that were swimming around saw what I was doing, and approached me.

"What are you doing?" One of them asked.

"I'm skipping stones across the water," I answered. I threw another rock, and the kids watched it skip along the water's surface.

"How to you do that?" Another asked. I grinned. I explained to them how to hold the rock, and showed them how to throw it. After a few failed attempts, the kids were finally able to do it perfectly. It was all fun until one of the thrown rocks hit an emerging Zora merchant in the back of the head.

"Ouch!" He cried. I covered my mouth, and the kids that had gathered around me scattered, and dived into the water. Link was busy gasping for air on the Merchant's shoulder, while he was walking up to me with a frown on his face.

"Sorry! I didn't know you were going to surface when you did!" I said. I bowed in front of the Zora, hoping that he would accept my apology. He put Link down and rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't throw rocks in here, it's dangerous for the people who are swimming," He said. I nodded, and promised that I wouldn't do it again. As soon as the merchant left, Link took a look at our surroundings.

"Wow! It's so beautiful!" He exclaimed. Navi hovered around his head, and coughed a few times.

"We're never, ever doing that again," She said. I asked her if she liked swimming, and she responded with a cough.

Both Link and I temporarily forgot about our objective as we began exploring the area. We found a few shops, and began making our way up. Eventually, we found ourselves in a tunnel with running water. We quickly learned that this was the top of the waterfall, and there was a line of young Zoras that were waiting for their turns to jump.

Both Link and I got in the back of the line, and the adult Zora who was giving the heads up to jump noticed us. He smiled, and walked up to us.

"Well well well, two humans in my line? What brings you here today?" He asked. Link didn't answer, trying to think of an excuse.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked. The Zora chuckled.

"They're swimming lessons, boy. Each of these kids takes a turn to jump from the top of this waterfall into the pool and has to retrieve a jewel that I throw down for them," He explained. I was about to say that it sounded easy, but Link stopped me.

"The pool is very deep, I saw it when I was about to break the surface," He said. I furrowed my brow.

"How deep is it?" I asked. Link shook his head.

"_Very_ deep. I don't even think that I'd be able to reach the bottom of it unless I got lucky," He said. I frowned again. The older Zora began speaking again.

"How about I make an offer? If one of you two is brave enough to dive into that pool and retrieve this gem, I'll give you a prize," The Zora said. He held out a blue crystal that was the size of my fist. Sadly, it wasn't the spiritual stone.

I've always considered myself to be a good swimmer, and didn't think that being turned into a 12 year old boy again changed my skill. I decided to accept the Zora's challenge. When I did, the Zora grinned.

"Ok then, I'll send one of my students down with you to keep an eye on things in case you get in trouble. Just retrieve the gem, and get back up here, ok?" He asked. I nodded, and made my way to the edge of the waterfall. The running water tugged at my shins, almost as if it was asking me to jump. I saw the Zora throw the stone off the edge of the waterfall, and after it hit the surface of the water, he told me to jump.

I hesitated for a moment, and I heard one of the kids say "Do it you coward!". It was all encouragement that I needed. I immediately leaped off the edge of the waterfall and dived for the gem. I crashed through the surface of the pool and my rib began to hurt again, but I ignored it.

I quickly began pulling my way through the water towards the precious stone, which seemed to glow under the water. Link wasn't exaggerating when he said that this pool was deep. My only chance to win this was to grab it before it sank all the way to the bottom.

I felt the water pressure building on the sides of my head, but the stone was almost within arms reach. I kept swimming, and my ears began to hurt. I tried to snatch the stone, but only my finger tips touched it. As my hand passed by, it did a loop in the water, and I swiped at it again with my other hand. I missed it again, and felt like crying out when I grabbed at it for a third time.

My hand squeezed the gem, and I began swimming back for the surface. My rib was seriously hurting now, my head and ears were also suffering. I saw the Zora child that was accompanying me give me a thumbs up as I began making my way towards the surface again.

I didn't realize how deep I went when I went after that stone. My lungs were on fire, and all I wanted to do was reach the surface. I redoubled my efforts, and when I felt like I was about to break, I finally made it.

I took a deep breath, and the Zora child dragged me to the shore. He helped me sit, and looked up at the adult, who was looked from the top of the waterfall. My saviour waved at him, and nodded, letting him know that I succeeded in retrieving the gem. My companion helped me stand, and half-carried me back to the top of the waterfall. I was exhausted, but refused to let go of the stone. When we reached the group, I saw Link and the rest of the kids clap. The adult had a huge smile on his face, and took the stone from me.

"Way to go young man! Way to go! That was mighty impressive for a boy of your age!" He said. His congratulations made me smile, and Link nodded at me.

"As agreed, here is your prize!" The Zora said. He reached at his neck, and plucked out one of his scales. I raised an eyebrow when he gave it to me. It took me a few moments, but I finally found the strength to speak.

"What the heck is this?" I asked. The Zora looked at me for a few moments, and he finally realized that I didn't understand why he was giving me one of his scales.

"You don't... Oh, right right," He said. He grabbed the scale, and tiled my head to the side in order to expose my neck.

"Relax, this is going to sting a bit," He said. He pressed the scale against the side of my neck, and suddenly it felt like someone was stabbing a small hot needle into me. I yelped in surprise, and jumped away from him. But, strangely, the pain disappeared i almost an instant.

I felt my neck, and my fingers dragged along an unnaturally smooth spot on the side of my neck that was never there before. I realized that he put the scale into my skin.

"What did you do to me?" I asked. The Zora smiled.

"I just gave you one of my scales! With it, you will be able to hold your breath underwater for a longer period of time than a normal human. Don't be stupid though, you won't be able to breath underwater like we can," He explained. Link walked up to me and watched the scale.

"It looks out of place," He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Well of course it's going to look out of place, Humans don't have scales!" I exclaimed. The Zora laughed, and waved us goodbye. As we began making our way back from the waterfall, Navi flew in front of us.

"Aren't you two boys forgetting something?" She asked. Link and I both glanced at each other, before we both realized what she was talking about.

"Shoot! The spiritual stone!" Link exclaimed. I smacked my forehead with my hand, and made my way to the nearest Zora. It was a woman, and I asked here if she could lead us to the king. She gave me an odd look, but after Link showed her Zelda's letter, she led us to the king's chamber.

The King's chamber, wasn't much of a chamber, and was more of an exit. Sure, it was spacious and there was a bit of furniture in it, but the large hole in the back that led outside didn't make this an actual chamber in my mind. The King was seated in a throne made from the many shells of sea creatures. Like in the game, he was an enormous Zora, and he was fat... Really really fat.

The Woman bowed in front of him, and told him that we had a letter from Zelda that said we were here on important business. The King nodded, and politely sent her away. He focused on us, and let out a long and melancholic sigh.

"I understand that the situation in Hyrule must be dire if the princess has to resort to sending a couple of kids in order to make a request, but unfortunately I cannot help you," He began. I furrowed my brow. I was about to ask him why he didn't even bother to hear what we wanted, but Link spoke up instead.

"What's wrong my lord?" He asked. The Zora king looked at my companion, and a tear rolled down his face.

"Well... I wouldn't normally be worried about this, but ever since that man came here and demanded to have the spiritual stone, our lord Jabu-Jabu began acting strange," He began. No one had the chance to respond before he continued.

"Now, it isn't the first time that he's swallowed my daughter. She usually goes and hides in his belly whenever I make her upset or she feels sad, but because of his strange behaviour, I'm worried that she'll end up getting hurt!" He said. More tears began streaming down his face.

"Uhh... What?" I asked. Link looked like he was extremely concerned for the king.

"Dante, didn't you hear? His daughter had been eaten by this Jabu-Jabu!" Link exclaimed.

"I heard him... It's just... Who the heck goes hiding _inside_ of the belly of a large creature when they're upset? And... I just... what!?" I asked. I totally forgot about this happening in the game. It all sounded rather silly.

"Sorry sir, our friend here isn't from Hyrule. This isn't the first time he's shown a lack of respect," Navi said. I was about to protest, but the king shook his head.

"No, it's ok. I know it must sound strange to one who is not a Zora, but alas it is true. No one dares to go inside of Jabu-Jabu's belly to go and retrieve my daughter. They are all too afraid of what might happen in there," He lamented. Link stepped forward.

"Don't worry your higness, we'll get your daughter back!" Link exclaimed. The king looked at him, and began crying again.

"Thank you child! You truly are brave! If you manage to return my daughter safely, I will give you anything that you desire!" He said. Link agreed to the terms, and the King pointed us to Jabu-Jabu's shrine.

We made our way outside, and found ourselves in shin deep water. We made our way towards the large shrine that was situated on top of a short staircase, and stood at the water's edge. Unlike in the game, the water here was very dark, and looked very deep. I didn't even know if anyone was swimming around down there.

We waited on the shrine for what seemed like an eternity, before Link stood up. He began pacing back and forward, and eventually sat down on the stone floor. He began tracing the outlines of the rocks that composed the shrine with his index, and let out an audible yawn. I racked my brain, trying to remember what to do here. My memory of this segment was coming back to me, but Navi figured it out before I did.

"The king referred to Jabu-Jabu as a lord right? Maybe we should make an offering for him?" She asked. Link's eyes lit up.

"Yeah! Dante, do you have any food left on you?" He asked. I was already taking off my backpack, and digging through it. I pulled out our last piece of smoked meat, and held it out to the water. I didn't know what to say, so I figured that I should just improvise.

"Oh great Jabu-Jabu! We are travellers and we ask you to accept our most humble offering," I said. I got on my knees as I spoke, and held the piece of meat to the water's edge. A few moments of silence passed, and soon a large whale-like creature emerged from the water.

Lord Jabu-Jabu was probably the largest living this that I have ever seen in my life. His mouth was so big that I couldn't even see anything else when I looked at what was in front of me. I heard his sniff, and after a few moments, his mouth opened.

I was a bit nervous, and hesitated. What if as soon as I put the food in his mouth he just swallowed it and went back under the water? What if he got impatient and clamped his jaws shut just as I started to put the meat in his mouth? Would he bit my arms off?

As I stood there debating myself, Jabu-Jabu got very impatient, and began inhaling as hard as he could. The winds were so great, that both Link and I were swept off our feet, and were taken into the creature's mouth, along with the meat that we were using as an offering.

I flew through the air and screamed my lungs out as I crossed the threshold of Jabu-Jabu's teeth, and landed on his tongue. Link was lying next to me when I picked myself up and tried to wipe the saliva off of myself. I felt disgusting, and immediately turned to leave. Sadly, Jabu-Jabu's mouth slammed shut, sealing us inside.

"Oh great. We've been eaten by a whale," I groaned. I was about to bring my hands to my face, but stopped when I saw how slimy they were. I heard Link groan in disgust, as he too began to try and get rid of the saliva that was covering him from head to toe.

"This is so gross," Link complained. It was the first time I heard him complain about anything.

"Well... At least we're in. Now all we got to do is find the king's daughter and get out of here," I said. Link nodded, and began walking further into the creature's body. I took a deep breath, and hated every moment of it. Jabu-Jabu seriously needed to start brushing his teeth.

As we began making our way deeper and deeper into Jabu-Jabu's body, I tried to figure out which organ we were walking through. After going through a few tubes, I gave up on trying to keep track of where we were. We heard a gurgling sound, and decided to make our way there. We also tried to avoid all contact with the walls, because just like the rest of this place, they were slimy and disgusting.

We finally made our way into a large chamber, and what we saw was very disturbing. There were many floating Jellyfish that were hovering around the place, and a few of them were attaching themselves to the walls of the chamber. Link cursed, and drew his sword. We now knew that Ganondorf did something to Jabu-Jabu.

I drew my Bo, and staid behind Link. He was clearly the more experienced fighter, so I was confident in his abilities to handle himself. We approached the monsters, and a few of them began hovering towards us. As soon as one of them got within striking distance, Link cut one in two.

The good new was that the Jellyfish was killed instantly, the bad news was that Link received a very painful electric shock as soon as his blade touched the creature. Navi screamed at me to grab Link and drag him away from the monsters. I obeyed her command and quickly worked to get Link out of there, but the Jellyfish were closing in on us too quickly.

I put myself between Link and our attackers, and began to think. Link got electrocuted because his sword conducted electricity. I tried to remember if wood was also a conductor, but couldn't remember. I was afraid of putting myself at risk, but I couldn't get Link out of here before the creatures caught up with us. I decided that I had to take a chance.

With a savage yell, I jabbed at the nearest Jellyfish with the tip of my Bo, and braced myself for a shock. To my relief, I didn't get electrocuted. I now knew that wood did not conduct electricity. With this knowledge, it was just a matter of keeping the creatures as far away from me as possible, while crushing them with the Bo. A few moments later, all of the Jellyfish that were threatening us were dead, and Link recovered from his shock.

Link saw the dead Jellyfish, and realized that I was the one who took care of them. I helped him on his feet and he smiled at me.

"I guess this makes us even, right?" He asked. I shook my head.

"You're gonna owe me for the rest of your life!" I replied jokingly. Link punched my arm, and looked at the dead monsters.

"I wonder why they didn't electrocute you," He wondered out loud. Navi explained to him that metal conducted electricity, while my wooden Bo didn't. Link looked at me, and nodded.

"Well in that case, you'll have to lead," He said. I blinked a few times, and quickly shook my head.

"No way! You're the more experienced fighter here!" I almost shouted. Link sighed.

"You've got the more effective weapon against the monsters in here, and you want me to lead?" He asked. I was about to respond, ant then I stopped. He was right, why was I arguing against him? I finally agreed to lead, and began walking further into Jabu-Jabu's belly. I screamed when my foot stepped into something soft and squishy, which started to suck me through.

"OH GOD LINK! HELP ME! HELP ME!" I began shouting. I dropped my Bo, which was sucked through the membrane. Link lied down on his belly, and reached for my hands. Our finger tipes touched, but we were unable to grab on to each other. It didn't take long before I was sucked through, and fell a few feet onto something that broke my fall.

"Ouch!" A girl cried. As soon as I was able to move again, I quickly got off whoever I landed on, and saw that it was a Zora girl. Unlike the other Zoras, however, she didn't have the fish-tail growth and the back of her head. I recognized her, it was Princess Ruto herself.

"Sorry! I didn't see you!" I apologized profusely. She was kind of cute. Her cheeks were round, and her eyes had a certain fire in them that drew me towards them... But I only thought that she was a little cute.

"Dante! Are you ok?" I heard Link's muffled voice come from the ceiling. I looked up, and shouted back.

"Yeah, I'm just covered in slime. I found someone else down here, I think it's Princess Ruto!" I shouted. I didn't hear a response for a few more moments.

"You try to find a way out of there, I'm going to keep on exploring this part of Jabu-Jabu. I think I might be able to find something to use against those Jellyfish," He said. I nodded at the ceiling, and told him to be careful, and to rely on his wooden shield in order to avoid getting shocked again.

"Who are you guys?" Ruto asked. She leaned towards me, and placed her hands on her hips. I had to look away from her. She was a bit shorter than me, but she still managed to intimidate me.

"Uhmm... I'm Dante, and the other guy up there is called Link. We were sent here to rescue you. Your father is very worried about you," I answered. Ruto snorted and began walking away.

"Did he consider that maybe I don't want to come out of Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly yet?" She asked. I was beginning to realize that she had quite the attitude. I could already tell that she was going to be a handful.

"Well did you ever consider that letting Jabu-Jabu swallow you while he wasn't feeling well was most likely a very stupid idea?" I replied. I clamped my mouth shut as soon as I finished speaking. I should not have said that, especially to someone who was of a royal family.

"How dare you speak to me like that?" Ruto exclaimed. She was clearly offended. I mustered the courage to look at her in the eye.

"Sorry, but it's the truth. Did you even stop to consider the possibility that the evil electric Jellyfish that are infesting this place would probably hurt you if they got the chance?" I responded. Ruto maintained eye contact for a few more seconds, before crouching down, grabbing my Bo staff, and shoving it against my chest.

"Fine. But we can't leave yet, I dropped something in here, and I'm not leaving without it," She said. I let out a loud sigh, and began walking past her down another tunnel. Before I got very far, Ruto coughed. I turned around. Her arms were crossed, and she didn't look too happy.

"You can't expect me to walk all over the place. A princess such as myself must be carried," She said. She walked up to me, and motioned for me to hold out my arms.

"Are you serious?" I asked. I was about to explain to her everything that was wrong with a guy carrying a naked girl around, but then I remembered that she was a Zora, and that Zoras didn't wear clothes.

"Of course I am! Now be a man and carry me!" She exclaimed. I groaned and held out my arms to pick her up. She hooked her hands around my neck, and I began carrying her further into Jabu-Jabu's belly. She wasn't too heavy, but this was going to make it very hard to fight off the Jellyfish if we ran into more. The interior of the tunnels all looked the same, and I was beginning to feel like I was getting lost. Thankfully, Ruto constantly told me when I was making a wrong turn, and would also call me a moron whenever I made a mistake after following her occasionally vague directions.

"I'm sorry, but what did you drop in here that you absolutely need to retrieve?" I eventually asked. I was starting to get annoyed with her constant talking and insults. Whether or not I was getting annoyed because she was being mean and doing so on purpose, or because I actually wanted her to be nice to me was a different question entirely.

"It's none of your concern!" She said. I let out another sigh, and she readjusted her grip on my neck, turning my face towards hers.

"Don't ask me anymore stupid questions, all right?" She said. My neck was beginning to feel strained, and I quickly nodded. As soon as I did, she let me lift my head again and see where I was going.

I was about to ask her to stop being so mean to me when I felt a sharp pain in my right leg. I tripped, and dropper her in front of me. She let out a cry of surprise, and I immediately diverted my attention to whatever was hurting me.

There was a worm-like monster that had burrowed its way through Jabu-Jabu's flesh and sneaked up on me. My foot was inside of its mouth, and its teeth were digging into the skin on my leg. I cried out in pain and reached for my Bo. As soon as I grabbed it, I swung it down hard on my leg and struck the creature. It groaned, but didn't let go. I decided to jab the monster with the end of the Bo, and managed to get it in the creature's mouth. With a pained cry, I pried its jaws open, and pulled my leg free.

The worm's head retreated, and it pulled itself out of Jabu-Jabu's flesh. It was taller than I was, and it was getting ready to strike again. I struggled to get back up, despite the pain I was feeling in my right leg. When the monster lunged at me, I jabbed at it with my Bo. The point of the wooden staff got into the worm's mouth and I savagely thrust it forward as hard as I could. Ruto was screaming and crawling back away from my struggle.

I pinned the monster to one of the walls, and thrust the staff again. I head flesh ripping, and the worm went limp. I pulled the Bo out from the worm's mouth, and saw that I've managed to get it to pierce through the monster. There were a few gouge marks in the wood that were caused by the worm's teeth.

I collapsed to the ground, and took off my backpack. Ruto was covering her mouth, and looked scared. I groaned and opened the bag, reaching for a bottle of Lon Lon Milk. After drinking it, I put the bottle back into the bag, gritted my teeth, and stood up again.

Ruto looked at me, recomposed herself, and stood up as well. She glanced back at the creature, then back at me and huffed.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're all right. Now if you please," She said, getting ready for me to carry her again. I groaned loudly. I really wanted to tell her to walk, call her out for being so mean to me, but I just couldn't.

I finally understood how my version of Link in my copy of the game must have felt. Despite being wounded in many battles with the monsters in Jabu-Jabu, Ruto would constantly ask the hero to carry her all over the place. She simply refused to walk anywhere by herself.

I picked her up again, and almost dropper her when my leg began hurting really badly. I put her down temporarily, took a deep breath, and picked her up again. I was gritting my teeth extremely hard, but didn't even bother to worry about cracking any of them. I was in pain, and I was carrying a cute but mean girl through the insides of a whale thing. How much worse could this get?

Apparently, fate figured that I shouldn't only suffer mild psychological pain, and physical pain, but also emotional scarring. After we got through a few more chambers, Ruto made an announcement.

"Stop! I need to rest!" She said. As soon as she said it, I dropped her. She let out a short scream, and rubbed her behind when she got back up.

"Hey! What's your problem?" She exclaimed. I was so close to losing it with her.

"My problem!? What's your problem? I've been bitten by a giant tapeworm, carried you while I have an injured leg, and now you want me to stop because _you're_ tired?" I asked. My face felt a bit hot. I couldn't think straight anymore. She was driving me crazy. I couldn't believe I actually liked this character when I first saw her in the game.

"Well you should be thankful that I got tired when I did, it means you can rest. Unless you want to keep on going?" She asked. What I said clearly didn't bother her, so I grimaced at her and limped my way to the opposite end of the chamber. I looked at my leg, and saw that the wounds were already closing. That Lon Lon Milk truly was incredible. I would be happy about seeing it working so well if it wasn't for the sour mood that Ruto put me in.

I was the one carrying her. I saved her life, and she had the nerve to tell me that _she's_ tired? Why don't I get a say in this? Why don't I have the courage to tell her to go and find her item herself? I couldn't be bothered to answer those questions, and decided to dig through my bag for food. Of course, all I had were dried fruit.

I began to eat miserably, and glanced at Ruto every now and then. I caught her staring at me for a few moments, and she'd look away whenever I looked up at her. Likewise, whenever she looked back at me, and I was staring at her, I would turn my attention to my food. We sat there in silence for a few more moments, and when I looked back at her again, our eyes met. We both quickly looked away from each other, and I felt my cheeks warm up a bit. I had to admit, she was pretty cute even if she was mean.

I looked back at her again, and saw that she was still looking away. I felt a bit bad for her now. Here I was, eating food, and she was sitting at the other side of the room without anything to eat. I figured I'd be nice to her.

"Look, sorry about my outburst earlier. You're right, I should be grateful that you're letting me rest," I said. I don't know why I said it, but part of me was telling me that she only called for a break because of my injury. I didn't totally buy it, but it was certainly a possibility.

"Of course I'm right!" She said. She looked back at me, still looking at me with those eyes. I honestly could not tell if she actually didn't like me or if she was just very stubborn and proud.

"Do you want something to eat?" I asked. I held out a piece of dried fruit for her, and she looked at it for a few moments. She looked like she was about to get up to come over to me, but she stopped herself, coughed lightly, and straightened her back to appear more lady-like.

"You don't expect me to walk over there do you? If you want to give me food, you should be the one to walk over here and give it to me," She said. I felt my right eye twitch. I sighed, stood up, grabbed my backpack, and limped over to her.

I sat down next to her and handed over a piece of dried fruit. She grabbed it and looked at it with a puzzled look on her face. It was actually kind of funny to see her reaction to it.

"Is this what you humans call food?" She asked. It seemed like she was a bit revolted by the fruit she was holding.

"What do Zoras normally eat?" I asked. Ruto looked at me incredulously. What? Was I supposed to know?

"We eat fish and aquatic plants," She said. I rolled my eyes.

"And that is a terrestrial plant. The reason it looks kind of weird is because it's been dried out in order to keep it from rotting for a very long time. I don't like what a dried fruit tastes like, but if it means I won't starve on a long journey, I'll force myself to eat them," I answered. Ruto stared at the fruit for a few more moments, and finally took a bite out of it. I had to keep myself from laughing when she gagged.

"It's disgusting! What are you trying to do, poison me?" She asked. I laughed out loud.

"I told you they didn't taste good!" I replied. Ruto looked at me with an angry expression, and threw the dried fruit in my face. Who said my good mood needed to last long again? Or right, no one.

I sighed, and threw the fruit away. I finished eating my own piece, and forced myself to swallow it, before standing up again. Ruto stood up next to me, and once again demanded that I carry her. I picked her up, and she began directing me through Jabu-Jabu's belly once again.

We ended up climbing up a few levels. Occasionally I had to gently put Ruto down, or drop her, whenever we ran into monsters or when one of those worms jumped out from a wall after us. We had a few close calls where a creature almost touched her, but I pushed myself to protect her. If escort missions in games weren't any fun, they were pure torture in real life. The worst part was that every time I saved her life, she would shrug it off, and say that I was doing a good job as her servant. Eventually, we found our way to a strange membrane. I was drawn towards this membrane because it may have seemed like it was a part of the walls, but I knew that it was not supposed to be there. Something about it felt wrong.

I approached the wall to get a closer look, and immediately leaped back when a pieced of it reached out for me. I fell flat on my back, and Ruto landed on top of me. Her face was a few inches away from mine, and after we stayed there for a few awkward moments, she got up, dusted herself, and spoke.

"Although I am flattered that you felt the need to break my fall with your body, I want to remind you to not get any ideas," She said. She turned her face away from me. Was she blushing? I wasn't sure, I didn't get a good look.

"You got that right," I muttered. I stood up again, and observed the membrane again. Whenever I got close to it, It would reach out and try to get me. I was careful not to get too close to it. I asked Ruto if she knew what it was. She shook her head.

"No, this wasn't here before. A monster chased me out of there and I dropped my-" She stopped herself from saying it.

"So whatever it is you're trying to find is in that room, and you think that the monster blocked the entrance," I answered. Ruto looked at me.

"Well I didn't say that... But yes, that is what I- LOOK OUT!" She shouted. She pushed me to the ground just in time to avoid a tentacle that burst through the membrane. I was happy that it didn't grab me, but it coiled itself around Ruto's waste, and dragged her through the wall. Ruto screamed as she passed through it, and I stood up as quickly as possible in a vain attempt to try and rescue her.

"Ruto! Ruto! I'm going to save you!" I shouted. I began jabbing the wall with my Bo, but it began solidifying itself. My strikes grew more and more desperate, but the wall didn't give. I heard something coming up behind me, and quickly turned around with my Bo at the ready.

"Whoa! Dante, it's me!" Link exclaimed. I let out a sigh of relief and hugged him.

"Oh Link I'm so glad to see you! Quick, we need to help Ruto!" I shouted. Link raised an eyebrow.

"What's? Going on? I thought I told you to get her to the exit!" He exclaimed. I shook my head.

"Yeah but she didn't want to leave without some special possession that she dropped earlier, so she made me carry her and ordered me to go running all over the place looking for it. Then I got injured and she made me carry her some more and then I-" I was talking at a million miles per hour, but Link covered my mouth with his hand.

"Ok I got it. She made you look for whatever it is she dropped, right?" He asked. I nodded silently.

"She's also very cute... But super mean," I said as soon as he let go of me. Link shook his head, and looked at the wall behind me.

"I saw you shouting at this wall. Is she through here?" He asked me. Once again, I nodded. Link pulled out his Kokiri Sword, and stabbed it into the wall. He began grunting with effort as he cut at the fleshy membrane. Eventually, he made a big enough hole for us to walk through.

As soon as we made it through as saw what was waiting for us, only two words escaped my mouth.

"Ohh boy,"

What we saw was not a creature that could easily be described. It looked like a mass of flesh and tendons that were all randomly spliced together. There were a few tentacles that were sticking out of the top. Most of these tentacles were stabbed into the ceiling of the chamber, but one of them held on to Ruto, who wasn't screaming anymore, but was looking at me and silently pleading for me to help her.

On the creature's body, there were many giant Jellyfish that were attached to it. As soon as they detected our presence, they detached themselves and began to lazily drift through the air towards us. Link put away his sword, and pulled our something that he didn't have when he came in here. It was a yellow boomerang with a red jewel in it.

"Where did you get that?" I asked. Link winked at me.

"I found it. You wouldn't believe how many non-food items that Jabu-Jabu has swallowed over the years!" He explained. He threw the boomerang at the monster. The red jewel that was on it shined bright, and the weapon sliced through a few of the monter's tentacles before returning to Link. I realized that it was enchanted.

I readied my Bo, and met the first Jellyfish head on. By this point, I was already used to taking down the monsters. Their reaction times were so slow compared to those of a person, so beating it into the ground and then doing the same thing to its closest ally was not big deal.

Link kept on throwing the Boomerang until he cut all of the tentacles. Ruto fell to the ground and began running towards us. Although the monster's tentacles were cut, the parts that were still attached to the creature were still useable. It used one of its bleeding stumps to reach for Ruto, and I ran at her, hoping to reach her before the tentacle did.

Because of my limp, I got to her at the same time as the tentacle, and I grabbed her just as she was picked up. I hanged on to her for dear life, and she grabbed on to me, whimpering and begging me to not let go of her.

I was feeling surprisingly calm, despite what was going on. I tried to make sense of Link's position, and of our options.

Link retrieved my Bo, and shouted at me.

"Dante, drop right on top of it and stab it with the Bo!" He said. I nodded to him and turned towards Ruto.

"I'm going to let go of you. Don't worry, I'm going to save you," I said. Ruto didn't respond. She was too scared to listen to me.

The monster brandished us above its body, keeping us away from Link. When I was certain that I would land on top of it, I let go of Ruto. What didn't go according to plan was Ruto refusing to let go of me. So there I was, struggling with Ruto, trying to make her let go of me. After I finally managed to get her hands off of me, I fell and almost missed my landing. I hand to grab on to a few fleshy bits in order to prevent myself from falling off.

Link shouted at me to draw my attention towards him. He threw the Bo with perfect accuracy and I reached out to catch it. Unlucky for me, the creature caught it as the same time as me. We both struggled to pull the weapon away from each other, and finally another tentacle came down and smashed the Bo into two pieces. I fell backwards, but managed to stay on top of the monster.

I looked at my piece of the Bo. The broken end was jagged, and made for a perfect stabbing weapon. Sadly, the monster's end was also jagged, and the tentacle that held it was already aiming it towards me. With a cry, I stabbed my piece of the Bo downwards as quickly as I could, while also watching the other end of my weapon speed towards my face.

I felt my weapon meet a bit of resistance, before sliding into the monster's flesh. A high pitched squeal echoed in the chamber, and the tentacle that was attempting to stab me veered off course, missing my face by a few inched. I placed the flat of my hand on the blunt tip of the Bo, and pushed it in as far as it would go.

The monster went rigid for a few moments, then it collapsed. I was thrown from my position to the ground, and rolled a few feet until I ended up right in front of Link. He leaned over me and helped me up. My rib was seriously hurting, and my leg was on fire. After making sure that I could stand up straight, we made our way towards Ruto, who was busy untangling herself from the tentacle. When we reached her, Link got on one knee and helped her free herself. As soon as she got free, she stood up, looked at me, and gave me a big hug.

"Thank you! Thank you so much for rescuing me! I'm soooo- I mean... uhh," She said. She quickly pushed me away, and composed herself as best as she could.

"Thank you for saving me, but don't take so long next time. It's your job to ensure my safe return to Zora's Domain, after all," She said. I smiled at her. She really was grateful for the rescue, even if she was too proud to show it.

Link began walking towards the exit, a smile on his face. Navi was giggling, and I frowned when I heard her.

"What?" I asked. They didn't say anything, and stood by the exit to the room. Ruto went back to the remains of the creature, and grabbed something. I didn't get to see what it was. When she made her way back to me, she hit the item behind her back.

"All right then, carry me to the exit," She said, crossing her arms. My jaw dropped.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" I shouted. The last thing I heard before I was forced to pick up Princess Ruto once again, was Link and Navi's laughter.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Third Spiritual Stone

For the majority of the walk back outside of Jabu-Jabu's belly, we were all quiet. Link tried to tease me a bit as I was carrying Ruto, but I quickly made it obvious that I was not in a playful mood. When we almost reached the exit, Link finally decided to speak to me normally.

"Dante, I'm sorry about you Bo," He said. I looked at the ground as I walked. Ruto asked what a Bo was.

"It was the wooden staff I was carrying when I found you," I answered. Ruto went quiet for a moment, and raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you need to feel bad about a weapon breaking? You can just get a new one can't you?" She asked. Both Link and I stared at her. She realized that we were a bit offended by what she said.

"I loved that Bo, it was the first one I ever got," I replied after a short while. Link raised an eyebrow.

"You have more than one?" He asked. I nodded.

"I have about 4 others at home, each of varying size and weight, but I only had the one on me when I came to Hyrule. I'm already beginning to miss its absence," I replied. I was genuinely sad about losing my only weapon, but losing it also meant that I was no longer expected to fight battles anymore. I figured that watching Link fight from the side lines would be much more fun than actually participating in his fights.

Jabu-Jabu's teeth were visible now, and right before we entered the interior of his mouth, I decided to ask Ruto a question.

"What was it you were trying to retrieve anyways?" I asked. Ruto turned her face away from mine, she looked a bit uncomfortable or embarrassed.

"I'll show it to you later," She said quietly. Her hands were looped around my neck, and the item in question was still in one of her hands.

Once we were standing on Jabu-Jabu's tongue, I gently put Ruto down, and she walked to the edge of his tooth line.

"Jabu-Jabu! It's Ruto! You can let me out now! I'm no longer upset!" She shouted. Her voice quivered a bit when she said that she was no longer upset. It made me wonder why she came in here in the first place. I walked next to Link, and whispered the question to him.

The Hero looked at me, and shrugged. He admitted that it was something he wanted to know, but told me to ask her later. Navi suggested that she probably got in a fight with her father.

We didn't get to continue our hushed conversation. The interior of Jabu-Jabu shook a bit, and his mouth slowly began to open. We were greeted with the sight of the setting sun, and as soon as we stepped outside of the whale, Link pointed out that the water was no longer dark, but crystal clear now.

"I think that the monster we killed inside of Jabu-Jabu was the reason the water was dark," He suggested. I nodded, telling him that it was a fairly reasonable explanation.

"Alright Dante, carry me!" Ruto shouted. My head dropped and I let out another sigh. I really wanted to stop carrying her. Link and Navi began laughing at me again. I told them to stop laughing at me, which only made things worse.

We walked into the king's chamber side by side. Ruto was in my arms, smiling and waving at her father, who began trying joyful tears when he saw her. I put her down in front of her father's throne.

"The deed is done," I said. Link stepped forward.

"Thank you very much my brave, and young heroes! As promised, I will give each of you anything that you desire," The King said. Link smiled.

"We came here for the Spiritual Stone. Princess Zelda needs us to retrieve it," Link said. The King Zora blinked a few times, and began laughing nervously. Ruto looked at us, and held her item close to her chest. She glanced at me, and looked at the ground when she saw that I saw her watching me.

"Well... Uhmm... We can't give it to you," The King said. Link frowned.

"Didn't you say we'd get whatever it is we desired?" Link asked. The king took a deep breath.

"Yes, but... There are very specific traditions surrounding the stone, and we cannot give it to you if it is outside of this tradition. You see, my daughter it already engaged and-" The king began. Ruto turned to her father and interrupted him.

"I will not marry that man! You never even asked me if I wanted to!" She shouted. Her father went quiet.

Link's mouth was open, and I tapped his shoulder. My companion looked at me, and I pointed to Ruto.

"I think she's got the stone," I said. Link looked back at her, and then at me.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"I can't think of any other reason for her making us risk our lives to retrieve anything other than the stone. If you want it, you're going to have to ask her," I said. Ruto looked at Link. He took a step towards her, and she took a step back.

"Please princess! It's important!" Link begged. Ruto shook her head.

"No! The stone is a symbol of love and should only be given to the man that I intend to marry!" She said. She walked out of the chamber, and back towards Jabu-Jabu's shrine. Looks like she was going to be retreating back into his belly for a little while longer.

The King was very shaken by everything that was going on. He nervously looked at us.

"Was the spiritual stone the reason Zelda sent you boys here?" He asked us. Link nodded.

"Yes, your highness. We need it," He replied. The king let out a long sigh. And once again shook his head.

"I'm afraid that giving up the stone is a decision that ultimately belongs to my daughter. If there is anything else that you want, then I will be happy to grant it to you, but in order to get the stone you will have to convince her to give it to you," The king explained. Link pouted, and begged him to force her to hand it over to us.

"I'm afraid I'm already having a lot of trouble getting Ruto to agree to her arranged marriage. If I try to get her to give up the stone outside of wedlock, she'll never speak to me again," He said. I decided to speak up.

"We won't but you about the stone anymore, your highness, but we aren't leaving without it either. Now, there is something that I did want to get for myself that isn't related to the stone. I want a guitar as my reward for saving Ruto," I said. Link slapped his forehead, and Navi protested. I hushed them, and the King approved my request.

One of the king's servants was ordered to lead us to some bed chambers, and a guitar was given to me shortly after we installed ourselves. Link was sitting at the edge of his bed miserably while I began to happily pluck the strings on the instrument in a meaningless series of notes.

"Dante, what do we do now?" Link asked me. I shrugged, and kept on playing the guitar.

"Well, I don't think that we can convince Ruto to just hand over the stone. I do have one plan, but you're not going to like it," I said. I began strumming a few chords, getting my bearings on the instrument. It didn't quite sound like a regular guitar, but I was close enough.

"You're thinking of stealing it?" Link asked. I nodded. Navi began protesting.

"Dante, do you have any idea what would happen if you did that?" Navi asked. I nodded.

"I know. They would know it was us as soon as we left, and relations between the Hylians and the Zoras would be in shambles over it," I replied. Link groaned and lied down on his bed.

"What do we do!?" He half shouted. I put the guitar away in my backpack, and shivered when I saw the large instrument disappear into the confines of the backpack. Although I was fine with putting smaller items into the enchanted container, it was still freaky to watch larger items go in easily.

"Right now, I say we befriend her, and get her to give it to us," I said. Link shot up, he clearly had an idea.

"Dante, you can convince her to give the stone to you!" He exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow.

"I can?"

"Yeah, Ruto already kind of has a thing for you. And you did say that you thought she was cute," Navi said. I felt my cheeks go warm. I suddenly didn't want to be in this room.

"I'm not going to play with a girl's feeling to get something from her," I quickly said. Link grinned, and I suddenly felt very afraid. He was going to pay me back for teasing him about Zelda and Malon.

"You have a thing for fish don't you Dante?" He asked. I shook my head vigorously. I begged him to stop talking.

"I did catch him eyeing lore Jabu-Jabu when we crawled out of him," Navi said. Link burst out laughing, and I covered my ears.

'If I can't hear you you're not saying anything!" I exclaimed. I got up to leave, but Link sat me back down on the bed. He stopped his laughter, and took on a slightly more serious expression.

"Seriously, Dante, you have to convince her to give you that stone," He said. I shook my head.

"But Link, you're the ladies man. You should do it," I responded. Link shook his head in return.

"I didn't rescue her. You did. She's more likely to listen to you than me," He said. I knew that what he was saying was true.

We retired for the night, and the majority of the next day was rather uneventful. I couldn't get a chance to talk to Ruto again, so I spend most of my day with my new guitar.

A messenger from the king eventually showed up at our chamber in the afternoon. We were told that the King decided to throw a feast in order to celebrate our rescuing of her, and also to celebrate Jabu-Jabu's recovery from his sickness. He wanted us to be there, and the messenger said that we should put on our best behaviour for the duration of the event.

I glanced at Link, who nodded at me. I took a deep breath, and we followed the messenger out of our bedchamber. He led us down a series of halls that I've never visited yet, and we were eventually greeted inside of a great big cavern with a very long table. A large seat was situated at the end of it, and the King Zora was already sitting in it. Ruto was sitting next to him, and glanced in our direction. She still looked upset.

"Where should we sit?" I asked. The messenger led us to the King's side, and I found myself sitting across from Ruto. She didn't look me in the eye, and instead let out an audible huff before crossing her arms and sitting back in her chair. Yup, she was still mad.

I glanced over at Link, who gave me a not-so reassuring smile. I was going to have to make her feel better, and then convince her to give me the stone. I tried to convince myself that it was going to be easy, but knowing Ruto, it didn't seem likely.

More Zora's began to enter the chamber, and waiters began bringing out a few dishes. A Zora that was a bit bigger and taller than I was sat down next to Ruto. He looked like he was around 15 years old. Judging from the necklace he was waring, he seemed like he was important. I suspected that he was Ruto's suitor.

I saw Ruto lean away from him a little bit. The boy didn't seem to notice, and politely nodded at us when he saw us. He held out his hand for us to shake it.

"I hear that you are the ones who rescued Ruto and brought good health back to Jabu-Jabu," He said. Link shook his hand, and then I did. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way.

"Yeah, well... It wasn't easy," I replied. The boy smiled, and straightened himself in his chair.

"I would love to hear all about it. I've always wanted to meet adventurers," He said. His voice was very modest, and he pronounced each of his words with a clarity that almost irritated me. Link nodded, and began telling him about what happened inside of Lord Jabu-Jabu. He told the boy about the jellyfish, and about how I had to fight them off after he got electrocuted. I decided to join in on the storytelling, and explained that facing the monsters was very scary.

We didn't get far before the table was surrounded with Zoras, and the King loudly cleared his throat in order to silence the room. He greeted everyone in the room, and announced that the feast was being held in honour of the two heroes who rescued his daughter and returned her safely.

The waiters began filling up everyone's plates with food. As soon as they were done, everyone began to eat. The room was buzzing with conversation, and the Zora boy who was sitting next to Ruto asked us to share the story of Ruto's rescue.

"Sure, but only if Ruto joins in on it. I don't want to miss any details," I said. Ruto glanced at her neighbour, and looked down at her plate.

"Sure," She said. Watching her getting flustered like that was enjoyable.

"Oh! Before you start, let me introduce myself. I'm Mika, and sorry for not telling you earlier, it was terribly rude of me," The boy said. Link smiled, and told him that it wasn't a big deal.

"I'm Link, and this is Dante," Link said. Mika nodded. He could barely contain the excitement in his face. Something told me he was a huge fan of adventure stories.

Link was the one to start the narrative. He told Mika about our very first moments after entering Jabu-Jabu, up until the point where he was electrocuted. Because he was temporarily knocked out from that, I had to fill in the details that he was missing, namely my fight with the jellyfish.

"I began to lead the way since I had the more effective weapon, and I only agreed to do that after Link convinced me to do it," I continued. I wanted to make it clear that I was not as brave as a classic hero. Mika was intently listening to our story, and leaning forward in his chair. I was beginning to realize why he made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

"What happened next?" He asked. He was almost begging for us to tell him the next part of our tale.

"Well, I took two steps and was sucked into a hole. I began screaming and flailing my arms around like a lunatic, begging for Link to save me!" I continued. Mika laughed when I mimed panic, and asked Link if I really did look that funny. Link raised an eyebrow, and said that he didn't find anything funny about my panic at the time.

"I guess this is when you landed on me?" Ruto asked. The King, who was sitting close by, and was also listening to our story, frowned when he heard that. Mika burst out laughing.

"Oh man! That must have been funny!" He said. He was totally oblivious to the king's horrified expression.

"You weren't harmed too badly were you my dear?" The king asked his daughter. Ruto sighed and shook her head.

"No dad, I was more insulted by the fact that Dante began talking back to me almost as soon as we met," She said. The king looked at me.

'What?" He asked. I giggled nervously.

"Well, she did say a few stupid things, so I felt the need to set a few thing str-" I began. I was realizing that the words that were coming out of my mouth probably weren't the best ones to use.

"Do not talk back to my daughter ever again!" The king snapped at me. Mika giggled a bit, but stopped himself when the king looked at him. He told Mika that he should be more concerned with the well being of his fiancee, but Mika shrugged, saying that Ruto was obviously fine.

"He also tried to feed me some disgusting human food!" Ruto said. She made it sound a lot worse than it actually was. I looked at her with pleading eyes, silently begging her to stop making me look bad in front of her father. She stuck her tongue out at me, and Mika's eyes narrowed a bit when he saw this. I didn't think that this was going to turn out well for me.

In order to shift the conversation away from myself, I got Link to describe his half of the story. Apparently, after leaving me to explore more of Jabu-Jabu's belly, Link was ambushed by a horde of jellyfish and worms. He quickly learned that he was able to chop up the worms without fearing electrocution, but the jellyfish were hard to fight when he was only able to use a Deku shield.

Mika asked him many questions. When he asked Link if he was scared, Link's answer somewhat bothered me.

"No. I don't have time for that. If I get scared, I won't be able to think or protect anyone properly," Link answered. I never knew that Link thought of fear in that way.

Link then went on to the moment he found the boomerang. It was when the Jellyfish chased him into a chamber that was full of old items and heirlooms. Link feverishly looked for a weapon, and found the boomerang while looking for something. He almost tossed it away when Navi told him what it was. After that, Link used it to fight off his pursuers.

Dinner continued to progress in this manner. Whenever I had to give my parts of the story, Ruto would skewer or warp a few details in order to make me look bad. I don't know why she did it, and she kept on making faces at me whenever I'd look at her when her father wasn't looking.

When the feast was over, Both Link and I retreated back to our bed chamber. We barely had enough time to do anything before someone came in. It was Mika, and he was looking at me with slanted eyes.

"Uhh, hello?" I asked. Mika walked up to me, and grabbed my shoulders. He carefully examined my face, and let out a sigh.

"Could it really be that she likes this guy?" He asked himself quietly. I glanced over at Link, who was raising his eyebrows.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked him. Mika looked me in the eye, and then got on his knees and grabbed my hands. His movements were so sudden and quick, that I actually almost jumped in surprise.

"Oh yes! Please help me!" Mika almost shouted. Link walked up next to me and helped Mika stand up again. I was a bit scared by the guy. He was older than me, yet he was kneeling at my feet a few moments ago.

"What's wrong?" Link asked. Mika took a few breaths and began to explain.

"Well... The two of you are aware of who I am right?" He asked us. I nodded.

"The King said you were Ruto's finacee?" I asked. Mika nodded.

"Yes, that is correct. The problem is, I don't want to be a politician, and I most certainly do not want to be married to a girl like her!" He said. I was taken aback by what he was saying. Suitors were supposed to all be perverts who didn't like it when their fiancees were checking out over guys, right?

"Ok, but what do you want me to do about it?" I asked. Mika grabbed my shoulder and walked me to the door of the chamber.

"I saw the way she looked at you. Ruto may not want to admit it to anyone, but I know she likes you. I want you to convince her to give you the spiritual stone in order to turn you into her fiancee. That way, I can be free to do what I want to do," Mika explained.

"Wow! Slow down there! One: Aren't you already her fiancee? And two: Why are you so dead set on not wanting to marry her?" Navi asked. It was a shame I wasn't the one who asked that question.

"Our per-arranged marriage rules are complex, but also offer us a lot of freedom. Basically, if the two parties do not truly love each other, but find someone else that they truly love, then they can call off the marriage in order to be with that other person. We Zoras believe that love is a most sacred thing, and that it should be nurtured whenever we can nurture it," Mika explained. I wasn't sure I understood.

"Aren't arranged marriages supposed to be for political and financial benefits? And why would they force you to marry if you guys only believe in true love?" I asked. Mika nodded.

"Well the Princess and I don't exactly hate each other either. Since neither of us has found someone we love and our families are both rich, it has been decided that we would have to marry each other if we don't fine anyone. We're not getting married right away in order to give ourselves enough time to find someone, and it appears that the princess has found someone," Mika said. Link's eyes lit up.

"I knew that Ruto had a thing for Dante! This is perfect! Dante, you need to do this. That way we can get our hands on the spiritual stone!" Link exclaimed.

"Hang on-" I began. Mika interrupted me.

"Please, free me from this arrangement so that I may leave Zora's Domain in order to go adventuring!" Mika said. I was about to protest again, but both Link and I went quiet.

"What?" Navi asked.

"That's why I want you to become her new fiancee. It's so I can be free to travel and find adventure for myself. I've always enjoyed listening to the old tales or heroes and villains. Your story was also a very inspiring one," Mika said. Everything was moving way to quickly for me, I sat down on the bed.

"I don't know. I'm not sure," I answered. Link's jaw hung open, and Mika sat down next to me with a worried expression on his face.

"What? Why not? You want the spiritual stone don't you? Even if you don't actually like her, you'll at least be getting what you want!" Mika said. Link also begged me to go through with Mika's idea. I shook my head.

"No. I don't want to play with a person's emotions just to get something out of them. It's dirty and dishonest," I replied. Link raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you spend a lot of time stealing things from people? Theft is a pretty serious crime you know," Link countered.

"Yeah but I didn't lie to them, nor did I hurt their feelings. I'm perfectly happy with stealing the stone but-" I began.

"Earlier you said that if you did steal the stone, they would know it was us," Navi cut in. I froze. She was right. If I did steal the stone, I would hurt Ruto's feelings if she liked me. I put my face in my hands.

"Oh! What do I do!?" I wailed. Mika put a hand on my shoulder, and once again begged me to help him.

I don't know why, but after having Link and Mika beg me to basically take the Zora boy's place as Ruto's fiancee, I finally agreed to the plan, although I did it reluctantly. I told them that I'd start spending a bit of time with Ruto, and that hopefully her dad doesn't think too badly of me, especially after what happened at the feast.

We spent a few days trying to spend more time with Ruto. Every time we could catch her, she'd still put up that cranky front and directed as much of her mean spirited jokes or pranks towards me as she could. It wasn't much fun and she'd also spend as much time as possible making me look back in front of her father. The Zora king quickly went from a guy who liked me for saving his daughter, to a guy who was only tolerating my presence out of politeness. Needless to say, it didn't feel like I was making any progress with Ruto.

One night, something strange happened. I was sleeping regularly, dreaming about something that wasn't too distinct, but then a tentacle that was wielding one of the broken halves of my Bo stabbed me right in the chest with it. I felt the pain, and shot up in my bed with a startled cry. Link was immediately at my side, and managed to save me from falling out of my bed.

"What's wrong?" He asked me. I looked at him for a few moments while my left hand was feeling my chest for a hole. A few panicked moments later, I confirmed that I was safe, and took a few deep breaths. I don't know why it took so long, but the insanity of the fight in Jabu-Jabu's belly was finally catching up with me in full force.

"I had a nightmare. I dreamed that monster killed me," I replied. Link raised an eyebrow.

"Are you talking about the one from inside Jabu-Jabu? You killed that thing flawlessly. I was actually surprised since you didn't hide from it like you normally would have done," Link answered. Ouch.

"I don't know how I managed to do it. I'm actually feeling the fear... How the heck did I even manage to kill it!?" I asked. I was looking at my friend with wide eyes, and he gave me a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry. You did it. Go back to sleep and make sure you're ready for tomorrow. You've got a princess to marry," He said. I shot daggers at him as a glared at him, and Navi laughed.

"I hate you both so much right now," I replied. I got into bed, and fell asleep again. I didn't wake up again that night, but the vision of that tentacle speeding towards me didn't leave my mind's eye.

The King knew that we wouldn't leave without the stone, but he made it very clear that he could not help us convince Ruto to hand it over. That morning, I groggily got out of bed and couldn't bring myself to prepare for the upcoming day. Link was already gone, and walked back into our chamber to check up on me.

"Dante, you up yet?" He asked when he saw me slapping my cheeks softly with my hands. I shook my head.

"No," I replied. Link laughed, and motioned for me to follow him.

"Mika has requested our presence. We are to spend more time with him and his fiancee. Try to get alone with Ruto," Link told me. The last part was a whisper. I knew it was code for "We're placing all of our hopes and dreams on your ability to court a very temperamental girl. Good luck!".

We made our way through a few tunnels, and found ourselves on a ledge that was overlooking the large pool I dived into the other day. We weren't at the waterfall, but we were still pretty high up. Ruto and Mika were waiting for us. The two of them didn't really seem to be comfortable standing right next to each other, and Mika waved a bit too enthusiastically at us when we came into view. I looked at Ruto, and figured I'd just treat her the same way I normally treated her.

"Morning princess, you look like you're in a good mood," I said with a wave. I nodded at Mika, who gave me a subtle thumbs up.

"Save the flattery for someone else," Ruto responded. I actually felt a bit hurt by that reply. I saw a bit of blush on her cheeks, but it didn't register for me at the time.

"Why are you always so mean to me?" I asked. Ruto's eyes were drawn to my neck. She didn't pay any attention to my question, and took a few small steps towards me. I leaned back a bit as she took a closer look.

"You have a Zora scale?" She asked me. I was taken aback by the question. Clearly, she didn't want to answer my questions.

"Yeah, I got it before coming to rescue you," I answered. An evil grin spread on her face.

"Wait until my father hears about this!" She said. Her tone of voice was clearly a mocking one. She was purposely teasing me, but I didn't notice. I was more worried about salvaging whatever positives that I had left in the eyes of the king. Link and Mika were staying surprisingly quiet today.

"What!? No! Do you want me to get kicked out of Zora's domain!?" I almost shouted. I reached out to grab her by the shoulders quickly, but Ruto stepped to the side and held out a foot. I tripped, and fell off the edge of our platform, into the pool below. I crashed through the surface mid scream, and had to take a few moments to re-orient myself in the water.

I immediately noticed that holding my breath wasn't a big deal. Even after a whole 10 seconds, I didn't even feel the slightest need to take a new breath. Someone else fell into the water next to me, and when I turned, I was face to face with Ruto. She stuck her tongue out at me, and began swimming away at full speed.

I remembered Link's instructions. Although I didn't believe in deceiving someone and hurting their feelings in order to get what I wanted, I decided to take Link's advice. Of course I needed to spend a bit more time with Ruto. If I wanted to get the stone, I needed to like her enough for her to give it to me... or was it supposed to be the other way around?

I swam after her and obviously I could not keep up. She dove beneath the waterfall, and I decided to follow her. To my surprise, there was a cavern. I followed the princess inside, and I broke the surface of the water a few moments after she climbed out of the water. I dragged myself out of the water, and looked at my surroundings. It was fairly dark, the only light that was preventing it from becoming pitch black was light that coming from the water. It gave the cavern a soft glow.

Ruto was standing there, arms folded across her chest. She didn't look impressed with me.

"You're such a slow swimmer!" She finally said when I was standing in front of her. I sighed.

"Of course I'm a slow swimmer, I'm not a Zora!" I answered. Ruto smiled a bit, but quickly whipped it off of her face. We stood there in awkward silence for a few moments, before Ruto asked me a strange question.

"Well, aren't you going to ask me?" She asked.

"What?" I asked. I was looking at her, she kept her eyes off of my face.

"You heard me," She replied. I shook my head.

"What do you want me to ask you?"

"Ugh, Aren't you going to ask me why I brought you here?" She replied. She brought a hand up to her forehead. I shrugged in response.

"I figured it was so you could berate me while sparing me the embarrassment of being emasculated in front of my friends?" I asked. It was a bit wordy, but I figured it would work.

"Seriously?" She asked me. I shook my head.

"Of course not. Why did you bring me here?" I asked. Ruto shifted her weight, and looked a bit uncomfortable. I began to realize that she was actually feeling a bit nervous. Upon learning this, I also began feeling a bit uneasy.

"Well... I wanted to thank you for saving me," She finally said. I tilted my head to the side.

"I'm not the only one you should be thanking," I replied. Ruto held out a hand and covered my mouth.

"I'm also sorry about your staff," She continued. I rolled my eyes in response and removed her hand from my mouth.

"It's not a big deal," I said. Ruto got closer to me and looked me in the eye.

"Dante. Look, I'm sorry I was being mean to you these past few days, and I don't want you to think that I hate you. I actually like your company, and I'm not looking forward to you leaving," She said. It caught me off guard, and I took a half-step back. Ruto grabbed my hand.

"I don't want you to hate me. I really am glad that I met you," She said. She didn't let go of my hand, and I felt my cheeks growing a bit hot. Although I've had a few glimpses of this side of her before, seeing it in full was very jarring. I was flattered, and confused.

"Uhmm, Ruto I don't hate you," I answered slowly. She was a very pretty girl, even if she was a fish person. She looked up at me, and a small smile spread on her lips.

"I'm glad. Is there anything else that you want to say?" She asked. I staid quiet for a few moments. Was she trying to get me to admit to something. She never let go of my hand, and I was becoming more and more aware of how close she was to me.

"I don't think you just brought me here to apologize?" I asked. Ruto looked away from my face.

"Correct, I wanted you to admit..." She began, but her voice trailed off. She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"It's ok Ruto, you can admit that you l-lov-" I was also having a hard time saying it all the sudden. We kept on trying to convince the other to admit their feelings first, but each of our attempts were unsuccessful.

Eventually, we both became aware of how much closer our faced were. Ruto was blushing, and I was sure that I was as red as a tomato. Ruto put on a small smile.

"Well, you don't need to say it. You can just show me," She said. She closed her eyes, and staid there, waiting for me to kiss her.

"Why don't you do that?" I asked. Ruto furrowed her brow.

"Are you telling me you're to afraid to-" She began. As soon as she accused me of being afraid, I planted my lips against hers in an attempt to prove to her that I wasn't a coward. She was a bit surprised at first, but didn't try to pull me away.

We broke apart, and looked at each other. I realized what I did, and my face began to grow even hotter. I was sure I'd be able to cook eggs with it in a few moments. Ruto was also blushing, and she finally gave me a hug.

"I don't want you to leave," She said. I hugger her, and shrugged.

"I'm going to have to. I have a job to do with Link," I answered. Ruto took a step back.

"Uhmm... I know my dad doesn't like you much anymore... But uh, you said you needed the spiritual stone right?" She asked. I nodded. She bit her lip.

"Well. I'm willing to give you the stone, but only on one condition," She said. She looked me in the eye. She was still feeling a bit awkward, and looked completely adorable.

"Sure, I'll do whatever you want," I answered. Ruto placed her index finger on my chest.

"You have to come back, and you will marry me when I come of age," She said. I remained silent for a few moments.

"What?" I asked. The request didn't even seem real. I totally forgot about having to go through with it.

"You heard me," She replied. One look at her face told me that if I refused she'd be very sad. I didn't want to see her like that.

"Right, sorry. I was just... Well," I began. Ruto raised an eyebrow.

"Are you saying you don't actually love me?" She asked. It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

"No! I do love you, it's just that... Where I come from, we don't propose until we're older," I explained. Ruto shook her head. She insisted on her position.

"You're not in your country. Either you do things our way or I don't give you the stone," She answered. I stood there for a few agonizing moments, and finally gave in.

"Alright," I said in a quiet voice. Even if it was just the two of us, I still felt embarrassed.

"Alright what? I need you to be clear," She said. I mumbled my response, and looked away from her. She was teasing me again, and I wasn't liking it.

"Louder," She said. I sighed, and she grabbed my chin to turn my face towards hers.

"Say it," She ordered. I swallowed.

"Alright! I'm going to marry you when you come of age!" I said loudly. Ruto smiled, and kissed me. I felt like a total wimp, having a girl leading me along. After our kiss, she held out a stone. It was the Zora's Sapphire, the spiritual stone of water.

"Thank you princess," I said. Ruto smiled.

"You need it more than I do. I hope you take good care of it and come back soon," She replied. I hugged her, and kissed her cheek.

"I'll be back, I promise," I said. Although I didn't realize it, I was being honest. It was now time to return to Hyrule castle. We had all three of the spiritual stones, and we were finally ready to complete our mission.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Fall of Hyrule

As soon as we made it outside of the Zora's Domain, Link asked me how I managed to get the stone from Ruto. Being an honest and kind friend, I figured that I'd be honest and tell him what happened. Sadly, I forgot that Link was still trying to get even with me for making fun of him whenever he'd start thinking about Zelda or any other girl.

"You kisser her?" He asked me for the billionth time.

"Yes," I answered. We were making our way slowly through Hyrule Field, we didn't make it far from the lake, and we wouldn't reach the castle for a long while. Luckily, the Zoras were kind enough to re-stock our food supplies, and thankfully we didn't have any fruits on us.

"How was it like?" Navi asked. This was a new question.

"I don't know what you-" I began.

"How did it taste?" Link asked. He was grinning madly. I knew where this was going.

"I don't want to-"

"She tasted like a fish didn't she?" Navi asked. I covered my face with my hands. I did not want to be having this conversation, but I couldn't escape it either.

"Don't tell me you like the taste of raw fish!" Link said in mock surprise. I kept quiet, silently dying in my corner.

"Dante has a fish fetish!" Navi exclaimed. I tried to snatch her out of the air.

"Shut up!" I finally shouted. Link and Navi began laughing.

"The angrier you get, the truer it is!" Link said. I felt my eye twitch, and I reached for the boomerang. Since I no longer had a weapon, Link gave me his boomerang. I was meant to hold on to it until we could find something to replace my Bo with.

"You know I have a boomerang I can toss at you right?" I asked. Link giggled a bit more.

"Yeah, but you're a terrible shot with it," He replied. It was true, I still had plenty of trouble hitting anything with it. Having only one working eye didn't help much either.

We made good distance that day, but it took a good long while before Link and Navi got tired of their teasing. We decided to stop for the evening, and took shelter beneath a lone tree. The outdoor nights in Hyrule weren't that harsh. The temperature was always good, and you could hear many insects chirping to the night sky. It was like being in a disney paradise.

"Dante, what do you think will happen once we get back to Hyrule Castle?" Link asked as he got ready for bed. I shrugged.

"Considering Ganondorf has already been going around trying to find the Spiritual Stones, It wouldn't surprise me if he had something planned for our return," I answered. Link raised an eyebrow and sat up.

"What do you mean? He doesn't know what we're up to, nor has he even attempted to stop us," Link countered. I shook my head.

"Remember, Ganondorf is the reason there was a giant Dondogo in Dondogo caverns, he put those monsters in Jabu-Jabu. If he can do that he must be a very powerful warlock or something like that, and that means he would probably have a way of knowing if someone's been messing with his monsters," I replied. Link considered what I said.

"Aren't you being a bit paranoid?" Navi asked. I shrugged.

"Maybe, but I'd be getting ready for anything if I was either of you,"

The next day, was an odd one. As we were walking along Hyrule Field, many grey storm clouds began appearing in the sky. We heard some distant thunder, but no rain fell on our heads. Link began feeling a bit uneasy, and when I asked him about it, he explained that storms weren't a very common phenomenon in Hyrule.

"You guys don't get storms?" I asked. Despite it being mid day, it was surprisingly dark. Link shook his head.

"No, usually we get light showers, but I've never seen clouds like that before," He said. I laughed.

"Boy oh boy do you have a lot to learn about the weather. Storms like this aren't uncommon where I come from, in fact, we get at least a couple during the summer," I answered. Link frowned, and asked me if I ever assumed that they were the work of an unnatural or evil force.

"No, never. Magic isn't exactly a common thing in my country," I replied. Link shook his head.

"Well, I'm telling you that this is not normal. Something is happening, and I'm certain Ganondorf is behind it," He said.

"We still have a few days left of travelling ahead of us. We'll probably get to the Lon Lon Ranch tonight. We'll stay there, ask them if they know anything, restock our supplies, and then make our way to the castle," I replied. Link didn't look like he liked the plan.

"I think we should try to get to Zelda as soon as possible," He replied. In an attempt to lighten the mood, I decided to crack a joke at his expense.

"Wow there, don't get ahead of yourself. You got to court her first," I said. Link shot me an unamused glance.

"Not now Dante," He replied. It was clear he wasn't in the mood for jokes.

As we made our way towards the ranch, I could not help but notice how truly odd the storm was. The clouds that were passing over our head were all headed towards Hyrule Castle. A large shadow was looming over the land, and I started feeling very uncomfortable.

"Maybe we should skip the ranch?" Link asked. I frowned.

"Our supplies won't last long enough to reach the castle. We need to stop at the ranch," I answered. It was nearly night time when we made it to the ranch. This time, Malon and her father were both standing outside, their backs were turned to us and their eyes were glued to the clouds that were gathering over the castle.

"Dad, what's going on?" Malon asked as we were approaching them. Ingo was nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know... I sure hope Ingo's all right," Talon said. Link stopped walking, and coughed. Talon and Malon turned around, and the hero waved.

"Hey there," He said. Malon's eyes widened when she saw us again, and she ran up to us. I could not help but notice that she gave Link a great big hug, but left me untouched.

"I'm glad you boys are safe. How was the Zora's Domain? Did you find what you were looking for?" Talon asked. He walked up to us, and we shook his hand.

"Yeah, we got it. What's going on?" I asked. Talon had a worried expression on his face. He looked back at the horizon, and began shaking his head.

"Something terrible is happening at the Castle. We don't know what's going on. I'm worried about Ingo. He went to the Castle for some business," Talon said. I glanced in the direction of the castle, and shivered.

Malon dragged Link away to go and see Epona. Apparently, the horse has been restless ever since the clouds began appearing, and she hasn't been able to calm him down properly. Link let the girl drag him away, and I stood there with Talon. The man smiled at me and tilted his head in the direction Link and Malon ran off in.

"Go on, make yourself at home. You boys must be tired from your travels, so feel free to spend the night here," He said. I thanked him and ran off after the two other children. I found them in the barn with the horses. Link was playing his ocarina in an attempt to calm them. I was surprised to see that it was actually working.

I waved hello as they watched me come in, and sat down next to Link. Malon was standing behind him, smiling as she watched him play his ocarina. After a few moments, Link finished his song, and looked at me.

"Dante, why don't you play your guitar for the horses?" He asked me. I uncomfortably scratched the back of my head.

"I'm not that good at it. I just know the basics," I said. Link shook his head.

"You're not that bad. I'm sure they'll like it," He said. Malon looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"You have a guitar?" She asked. I nodded, and reached into my backpack. I pulled out the instrument, and showed it to the girl.

"It was our reward for rescuing the Zora Princess," I explained. I strummed it a few times, then started playing the few chords that I knew. I made an effort to try and link them together into a melody, but it wasn't anything spectacular.

Still, neither Link, Malon or the horses seemed to mind. They listened to me until I started making mistakes, and finally stopped playing out of embarrassment. Link gave me a reassuring smile and patted me on the shoulder. He told me that it wasn't bad at all, and Malon also said that it sounded nice until the end.

"Well thanks," I said sincerely. I put the guitar back into the backpack, and Malon stared at it. Link noticed, and told her that it was bigger on the inside. The farm girl raised an eyebrow, and asked me to show her.

I opened up the backpack, and held it to her. She looked inside, and I saw her eyes widen. She looked back at me, then at the bag again.

"Can I try and grab something from it?" She asked. I nodded, and the girl reached inside. The look on her face was one of utter confusion as she rummaged around and finally pulled out my brother's mask. She stared at it for a few moments.

"Who's is this?" She asked. Link was the one to answer.

"It belonged to Dante's older brother. It's a souvenir," Link said. Malon looked at the mask again.

"It looks evil," She said. I laughed out loud.

"My brother made it so that it looked intimidating and scary. Your reaction is precisely the one he wanted to get from anyone who saw it," I said. Malon frowned.

"Why would he want to do that?" She asked. Link intervened.

"Dante's brother was a strange guy," He simply said. I felt the need to defend my sibling a bit.

"He wasn't a bad guy! He spent more time raising me than my parents did!" I said defensively. Link and Malon looked at me, and I realized that what I said quite literally came from nowhere.

A long awkward silence followed, before Talon walked into the barn. It was windy outside, and he told us to get into the house. We followed him inside, and we ended up spending the rest of the day waiting out the storm. Malon always tried to stay close to Link, and would frequently ask him about the Kokiri Forest. I felt a bit left out, but at the same time I was also glad that she was giving me enough ammo that I could use to counter Link's teasing with when we left. Link knew it, and whenever he glanced at me he would see a wicked grin on my face. He knew that I would have my revenge on our way back to the castle.

As we got settled for the night, Link and I had to share Ingo's room. It was cramped, and the bed was also very small. I decided to sleep on the floor, while Link slept on the bed. He tried to switch positions with me, but a part of me told me that the Hero of Time needed more rest than I did. After all, he was the hero of this story, not me.

"Dante?" He asked me after a few minutes of silence. I was using my backpack as a pillow as I was lying on the floor.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Do you think everything will be fine when we get back to the castle?" Link asked. A huge gust of wind was heard through the walls of the building right after he said that.

"I'm not sure. You've convinced me that this isn't a normal storm," I replied. A few moments later, Link stood up.

"If that's true then we can't stay here for the night," Link said. He grabbed his equipment, and began walking towards the door to the room.

"What? Link, we've been walking all day, I'm exhausted, and I don't have enough energy to make it!" I complained. Link looked back at me.

"Dante! Something bad is happening and you want to rest? We don't have time for that! We need to make it back to the castle and make sure that Zelda is safe! We need to make sure Ganondorf does not get his hands on the Triforce!" Link said. I stood up. I wasn't angry with him, but I needed him to understand something.

"I'm not like you Link! I'm not as brave or as strong as you are. I can't make that trip! I'm tired, and I really don't feel like walking anywhere right now. I just want to sleep," I said. Link shook his head and grabbed my shoulder.

"Dante, I know you don't think you're like me. But you're wrong. I saw you survive that attack from the giant Dondogo, and I saw you take down the monster in Jabu-Jabu's belly. You might not think you've got much, but I know that you are capable of doing this easily," He said. I shook my head, then thought for a moment.

"Wait, I think I know how we can make it to the castle quickly," I said. I reached into my pocket, and for the first time in a long time, I pulled out the Paradox Key. Link's eyes lit up.

"You mean we can use that?" He asked excitedly. I nodded. I told him that I'd need to check its power level first.

_Paradox Key energy level at 23%._ It said. I was a bit disappointed, but I also hoped that it would be enough to do what I wanted it to do. If the Key was able to do extraordinary things at a power level that was lower than 10%, it should be able to get us to the castle quickly.

Link had me lead the way out of the house, since I was the thief and I knew how to sneak around better than he did (Or so he claimed). As I grabbed the handle on the door, someone opened it, and I received the edge of the wooden barrier right in my forehead. I fell on the ground groaning and holding my face, and didn't notice who opened the door until I heard them speak.

"You're sneaking away to get to the castle aren't you?" A girl asked. It was Malon, of course.

"What were you doing listening in on our conversation?" Navi asked. Malon shifted her weight uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to tell you guys good night, but..." Her voice trailed off. I knew she didn't come here to wish us good-night. She probably wanted to see Link. Either way, it was kind of creepy. At least Ruto never sneaked into my bed chamber when Link and I were staying at the Zora's Domain... At least I think she didn't.

"I don't think you should go!" Malon finally said. She stepped forward and grabbed Link's hands. She told him that she feared for our safety, and that she thought that something bad would happen if we went.

"Malon... This is important. If we don't go all of Hyrule could be in great danger," Link said. He was calm, and trying to explain things clearly to her.

"You mentioned the princess. What's going on over there?" Malon asked. I decided to talk.

"We'll tell you after we deal with it. Just know that it's very bad, and that everyone will suffer if we don't go now," Although I was against leaving right away a few moments ago, now that I had plans to use the Paradox Key, I wasn't bothered by it. Sure, I was still tired, but I figured that I'd be able to get some sleep after we reached the castle town.

Malon thought for a few moments, and looked at Link right in his eyes.

"Do you promise you'll tell me?" She asked. Link nodded, and told her that he would give her every detail of our adventure when we came back to visit.

We quietly exited the house, and Malon accompanied us to the front door. She opened it quietly, and waved us goodbye. The second we were outside, we jogged a short ways away from the farm house, and I held out the Paradox Key.

"Alright, so you both know that the Paradox Key can change the properties of objects right?" I asked. Link and Navi both nodded. I took a breath.

"Well, if it was able to bring me here, it must mean that our physical position in relation to a place can also be modified," I continued. Of course I didn't say it took me from one reality to another, but I was sure that what I was saying was a very accurate description of one of its abilities.

"So what you're saying is that you'll use it to change our position to one that's closer to the castle?" Link asked. I nodded.

"If this doesn't work I'm going to be very angry," I said. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I begged the key to take us close to the castle. I tightened my grip, but nothing seemed to be happening, until I heard Link gasp in surprise.

I opened my eyes just in time to see Link trip and fall out of surprise. He was looked around with wide eyes, and then a grin spread on his face.

"Wow! That was so weird!" He said. I glanced around, not feeling anything. We were standing in front of the moat that was in front of the wall that separated the Castle Town from the rest of the world. The drawbridge was pulled up, and I couldn't see another entry from where we were standing.

"I'm so glad it worked," I said. The key's energy was completely drained, but at least we were close. Link walked up to the edge of the moat, and began yelling.

"Lower the bridge! We need to get inside!" He shouted. There was no response, and we waited there for a few minutes. The clouds were very dark here, and it quickly began to rain. I groaned in misery as we were forced to stand there, waiting for someone to lower the bridge.

Link was about to shout again, before we heard the bridge begin to move. It lowered slowly, and right before it completely opened, a horse was already running along the wooden surface. It was Impa, and she was carrying the princess away. Link's eyes widened when he saw this, and Zelda quickly threw an object into the moat before she passed by. Link ran a few steps to catch up to them, but the horse quickly outran him, and soon they were gone.

"Aww, what now? What are we supposed to do?" Link asked. I walked up to his side and shrugged. Another set of hoves could be heard walking along the bridge, and when we turned around, we both froze. It was Ganondorf, and he was riding on a black horse that had fiery red eyes.

"Drat! She got away!" The dark lord exclaimed. He kept on looking at the horizon, before his gaze settled on us.

"You there! Can one of you boys tell me where a horse carrying a noble girl and her nanny went?" He asked. He pointed at us menacingly, and his voice was oppressive. I took a step back, but Link stood his ground in silence. Ganondorf's eyes narrowed when he recognized us.

"I see, you're the boys that were with her that day in the courtyard," He said. I swallowed a bit of saliva, and Link drew his sword and shield. As soon as the evil man saw him, he laughed.

"Oh really? You think you can challenge me? What will you do with a butter-knife like that?" Ganondorf asked. Link raised his shield in defiance, and got in a fighting stance.

"I won't let you harm the princess!" The boy said. I took a few steps towards him.

"Uhmm, Link, I don't think that's a good idea," I said. I didn't want to be here. Every nerve in my body was screaming at me, telling me to run as far away as I could. Ganondorf smirked when he heard me.

"Yes, listen to your friend. Just co-operate, and tell me where the horse went," He said. Link shot me a glance.

"Come on Dante, be brave," Link whispered. Although I understood why he said it, I was still unable to steel myself. Ganondorf's very presence made it hard for me to stick around.

Without warning, Link charged the Gerudo King with a yell. Sadly, all Ganondorf needed to do was blast the boy with a bolt of black magic to knock him flat on his back. Ganondorf laughed, and walked his horse closer to us.

"You stupid boy. What could you do against a warlock such as myself? Just give me the information I need, and I will let you live," He said. He walked past Link, and brought his horse right up to me. My knees were shaking, and I was feeling very weak.

"Well?" He asked. I was too scared to say anything. After a few moments of silence, Ganondorf walked his horse right next to me, and kicked me in the chest. I was knocked to the ground with the air taken out of my lungs. I couldn't breathe for a few moments. Ganondorf got off his horse, and walked up to Link, He reached down, and took something from the boy.

Ganondorf studied the item for a few moments, then grinned. He was holding Link's Ocarina. I don't know why he was taking it, but I figured that he was mistaking it for the Ocarina of Time. Either way, it was a good thing he was making that mistake. The Gerudo king got back on his horse.

"On a second thought, killing you would just be a waste of my time. Consider this your lucky day!" Ganondorf shouted. His horse reared back and began galloping in the distance. He wasn't headed in the same direction that Princess Zelda went in.

I slapped my cheeks, and went to Link's side. I helped him up, and he asked me what happened. I told him that Ganondorf left, but wasn't headed in the same direction as Zelda. Link let out a sigh of relief when he heard that.

"He took your Ocarina," I said. Link looked at me, and a sad expression came on his face.

"Saria gave it to me," He said. I nodded, and tapped his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. But I think he mistook is for the Ocarina of Time, so that's good for us," I said. Link furrowed his brow.

"I saw Zelda throw something into the moat before she ran by," He said. I nodded. I told him that I'd go check it out. Link said that he would cross the drawbridge and see if the coast was clear. The clouds did not part, and there wasn't much noise coming from the town square.

I dove into the water of the moat, and swam to the bottom. It took a few moments of scanning the muddy bottom, before I found what I was looking for. The Ocarina of Time was even more beautiful when I held it in my hands. Amazingly, there didn't seem to be any dirt that staid stuck to it when I broke the surface.

I climbed out of the moat, and waited a few moments for Link to come back. I gave him the Ocarina as soon as he got close enough, and told him to keep it since it would be safer on him.

"I heard sounds of fighting coming from the town. Something serious is happening," Link said. He led the way, and we crossed the bridge together. We made it into the castle town, and were greeted with the sight of many of the castle's knights locked in combat with walking skeletons and lizardmen. I cursed quietly when I saw them.

The Stalfos were unaffected by most of the knights' strikes. Every time one of the skeletons were destroyed or knocked down, they would put themselves back together, and press their assault. There were many civilians that were running around, but none of them seemed to be aware that the drawbridge was open.

"The Drawbridge is open! Get out of here!" Link shouted at the top of his lungs. A few families heard him, and spread the news to their friends and to the knights. Unfortunately, the monsters also heard my friend, and began redoubling their efforts to block off any form of escape.

"Link, we need to go to the Temple of Time now!" I exclaimed. Link nodded, and we both began running towards our destination. We had to resort to using alleys, because there was too much fighting on the streets. If we were caught out there, we wouldn't survive the trip to the temple.

As we were making our way through the streets, we came across the remains of a bazaar. We would have kept on going, if I didn't stop the my companion. Something in the store caught my eye. I quickly made my way into the ruins, and grabbed a large shield from a rack.

"Dante' what are you doing?" Link asked me. I handed the shield over to him.

"If we run into monsters, your current shield won't last long against them. Use this," I said. I gave the Hylian shield to Link, who grabbed it with one hand. Another thing that was wrong with the game was that Link's size, and that of all children was greatly reduced in order to make them look young. Although the shield was a little big for him, he most certainly wasn't too weak to use it.

"Thanks," Link said. He put the Deku Shield in my backpack, and told me that he wanted to hang on to it in memory of the Deku Tree. We continued to make our way through the streets, and eventually I pulled out the boomerang in case we ran into something.

We almost made it to the Temple, but a single Stalfos found us, and readied his sword and shield. Link got in front of me, and took on a defensive stance.

"This is a good day!" The Stalfos said. It's voice was dry and demonic. It charged us, and Link expertly blocked one of its strikes with his new shield. Although the blow was enough to force him to take a step back, the boy was still able to counter with a strike of his own.

Link's slash severed the sword arm of the skeleton. We both watched it fall to the ground, but a few moments later, it hovered up in the air, and re-attached itself onto our opponent.

"Oh god da-" I began. I didn't get enough time to finish, because we were forced back by another assault. The Stalfos kept on striking at Link, who blocked every strike and kept on hacking off different pieces from the monster. Sadly, every single time a bone came off, it would simply re-attach itself a few moments later.

"Stupid boy, A normal blade can't harm an undead such as myself!" The Stalfos shouted. I readied the boomerang. Link caught me at the corner of his eye, and ducked out of the way. I tossed the weapon, and to my horror it passed right _next_ to the Salfos' head, rather than knocking it off like I hoped it would do.

The monster laughed, and looked at me with its glowing purple eyes. "What was that supposed to do?" It asked. As if on cue, the boomerang returned, and knocked the monster's head clean off. I caught the boomerang, and Link managed to grab the monster's head before it re-attached itself to the rest of its body.

"See you later!" Link said. He lifted the head up, and tossed it through a window of a nearby building. We heard the Stalfos cry out in frustration as its body began running towards the building in order to get close to its head. We chose that moment to run as fast as we could towards the Temple of Time.

The Stalfos never caught up to us, most likely because it didn't know where we went after it got itself back together. The sounds of battle were beginning to die out once we reached the building. We quickly entered, and found ourselves in a large and beautiful chamber. It was very peaceful in here, and almost fooled me into forgetting about the fight that was raging outside. At the back of the temple, there was an enormous stone door that was sealed shut.

"Ok... Let's see," Link said. We walked up to a pedestal, that had three slots in it. Link looked at me, and nodded.

"I guess this is where we put the Spiritual Stones?" He asked me. I shrugged, and told him that he was probably right. I pulled out the Zora's Sapphire, while Link took out the other two stones. Almost immediately, an invisible force pulled them out of our hands, and placed them onto the slots.

"Ok, now we need to get that door open," I said. Link nodded, and reminded me that Zelda said the Ocarina of Time was required to open it. He pulled out the instrument, and held it to his mouth. He stood there for a few moments, almost as if he was in a trance. I watched him, before I got worried.

"Uhh, Link? Could you hurry up?" I asked. A few more moments passed, before Link played a song that he never learned before. It was the Song of Time.

The clear notes resonated and echoed in the temple. After a brief moment of silence, the doors began to noisily open, revealing another chamber. It was a vast space, with a single object that was inside. The Master Sword was sitting in its pedestal, almost waiting for someone to pull it out.

Navi flew ahead of us, and we followed her into the room. She examined the sword, and told us its name. Link furrowed his brow.

"You mean _The_ Master Sword?" He asked. Navi nodded.

"Yes, this is the very sword from the ancient legends. I'm sure of it. It is old beyond comprehension. I can feel it," She said. I looked back at the entrance of the Temple of Time. I was worried that something would stumble in here while we were busy observing the weapon.

"Link, give me the Kokiri Sword. I'm gonna head outside and make sure its safe," I said. My instincts were telling me that my new found bravado was going to get me killed, but I was more worried about what would go wrong if I didn't head on out there. Link looked at me.

"What are you saying?" He asked. I pointed at the Master Sword.

"Draw that blade, and meet me back outside. I need a new weapon anyway, so you might as well entrust your Kokiri Sword to me," I answered. Link glanced back at the Master Sword. I tapped my foot impatiently.

"Hurry up, I don't want a monster to get in here!" I almost shouted. Link nodded, and gave me the Kokiri Sword. It was much shorter than the Shinais and Bos that I have used in the past. It was also very light. I already knew that fighting with it was not going to be comfortable. I always liked longer weapons over shorter ones.

Link made his way towards the Sword, while I began walking towards the entrance. Before I made it outside, I looked back at Link, who gripped the sword, and pulled on it. As soon as it left its pedestal, a sort of blue force field was erected in the place of the stone doors. Its appearance was also accompanied by an invisible shock wave that passed through me and almost made me lose my balance.

I left the Temple, and froze in my tracks. Many monsters who were busy fighting in the town square were now gathered in front of the Temple of Time. I heard them muttering, and laughing. Saying that the door to the sacred realm was open, and that Ganondorf was on his way back.

"Oh boy," was all that managed to escape my lips before I began running as fast as I could. A few Stalfos and Lizafos chased after me. I ran as quickly as my legs would let me, and didn't even bother to look behind me.

"I'll get you for knocking off my head!" One of my pursuers yelled at me.

"I'm sorry!" I shouted back at him. He didn't seem to want to accept the apology, because he still kept on chasing me.

I ducked through alleys and took many sharp turns as I made my way back towards the drawbridge. I knew that I wouldn't be able to do anything, and something also told me that Link was safe for now. I had to get out of the castle town, and gather my thoughts again.

I almost made it out, before a strong hand gripped my backpack and lifted me above the ground. With a cry, I removed it, and as soon as I landed I kept on running. As I ran, I looked over my shoulder to see Ganondorf standing there, holding my backpack in his hand. He raised his free hand, and grinned at me. I saw a dark energy ball forming in the palm of his hand, and before it could fire it off, I tossed the boomerang at him.

Ganondorf simply had to step to the side in order to avoid it, and as the weapon flew by, he blasted it into a thousand tiny pieces with the projectile that was meant for me. I took cover behind a wall, and when I peeked out, I saw him laughing.

"I should have known that the Ocarina I took was a fake!" He said. He began to slowly walk towards my hiding place.

"And how did I not realize that you boys were out there gathering the spiritual stones? I should have killed you as soon as I saw you!" He said. He sounded like he was enjoying himself.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted back. I wanted to run, but I feared that leaving my hiding place would get me killed.

"Ha, is that the best you can come up with? Tell me, boy, how did you acquire the stones anyway?" He asked. I bit my lip.

"We Slew those monsters you set on the Gorons and the Zoras when they refused to give them to you. You should really work on your diplomacy skills," I answered. I figured the joke my give me a bit of courage, but it had no such effect.

"Interesting. Although I should be worried that you have managed to best my monsters, I feel like I should be thanking you for opening the door to the Sacred Realm. You boys just played right into my hands!" He said. I peeked from my hiding place again, and the Gerudo King was busy digging through my backpack. He grabbed my brother's mask, and I stepped out from my hiding place.

"Don't touch that!" I shouted. My grip around the Kokiri Sword's handle tightened. Ganondorf smiled.

"I sense it is of great sentimental value to you... If I was in a good mood I would be giving it back to you, but because both you and your friend chose to lie to me about the Princess' location and gave me a fake Ocarina of Time, I must punish you," The Evil king said. I watched in horror as he crushed my brother's prized possession in his hand. It was all I had, and now it was gone.

I couldn't do anything. Even though I was full of anger, I was still too scared to actually charge and attack. I felt worthless, and tears began welling up in my eyes. Ganondorf laughed, and tossed the remains of the mask at my feet.

"Take care of him. Make sure he learns to never get on my bad side again," Ganondorf said. A pair of monsters began walking up to me. I let out a scream, and tossed the Kokiri Sword at one of them. The blade stabbed the Stalfos through the skull, and I began running away again.

I don't quite remember how I got away. One moment, I was knocked down by the other Stalfos, who was getting ready to finish me, the next I was being carried away by a small group of knights who managed to chase off the monsters. I wept in the arms of one of the men, and he tried to comfort me as they began making their way towards Kakariko Village.

When I finally woke up, I was sleeping in a room with many other refugees. We were in an inn at the village, and there wasn't enough room for everyone. I felt a sense of emptiness in my chest. The guitar that the Zoras had given me was gone, my backpack was gone, my Bo was gone, the Kokiri Sword was lost, the Boomerang was destroyed. And worst of all, my brother's mask was also destroyed. Everything had gone wrong.

I also realized that I was alone. Link was still in the Temple of Time, and I realized that the time travelling that was in the game world would only apply to him. I was stuck here. I was going to have to wait seven whole years for him to return, and in the mean time Ganondorf would take over everything. I held my face in my hands, and shuddered. But then I remembered something.

_Avert this world's crisis._ It was something the Paradox Key told me when I first got here. I reached into my pocket, and pulled it out. At least I still had what was possibly the most powerful magic item in this world next to the Triforce. I wasn't completely out of options. My grip tightened on the Paradox Key, and I made a promise.

"I will stop Ganondorf from causing more harm," I told myself. "I will keep the people safe until Link returns,"

With that, I got out of bed, and left the Inn. The sun was rising outside. It was the dawn of a new day. I decided that I was done with being afraid. I had a job to do.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Seven Years

**Like every chapter, this is a first draft. It's very shaky in a few sections and a few things don't make a lot of sense. I probably won't get around to fixing it until later though. Hope you like it either way.**

A lot has happened since that day. Shortly after waking up at the Inn, I made my way to the Goron City, and warned them of the danger. I knew that they would not be able to resist Ganondorf's power, and told them that if the new King of Hyrule showed up to become their new ruler as well, that they should surrender to him.

Naturally, my suggestion was not very well received by the Gorons. When I first showed up, they were overjoyed to see me again, but after telling them that they should submit to Ganondorf, they didn't seem to like me as much.

Darunia, however, took my warning seriously. Sure, he was upset, but he also understood why I was telling him this. He knew that they wouldn't be able to stand up to Ganondorf's might. So, we ended up having a conversation in private. A plan of resistance was forming in my mind, and I would need the Goron's help.

We talked for days. Darunia helped me form my plan more completely. I told him that although most of the Hylian Knights have either gone into hiding or have joined Ganondorf's side, a few who remained loyal to the Princess began to target Ganondorf's monster patrols. The knight groups were small, but they were making it hard for Ganondorf to expand his power. This bought us time for our plan, and also became a part of it.

Darunia suggested that someone should take command of these knights and lead them. He told me that this person should be one who has faced Ganondorf's evil face to face, and that it should be a person of unmatched courage. I told him that Link was still trapped in the Temple of Time, but he told me that I would make a fine substitute.

At first I was put off by the suggestion, but as time went on, it made more and more sense. Darunia was right. Apart from Link, I was the closest thing to an expert on Ganondorf's forces that there was. Plus, I had my knowledge from the game to help me, despite most of it being obsolete.

Darunia introduced me to a giant Goron who lived near the top of Death Mountain. He told me that his craftsmanship was unmatched, and that if I ever needed anything, that I should speak to him. Although I couldn't think of much right away, I decided to take note of the offer. It would come in handy later, and if I did manage to become leader of the independent knights, we would be able to use him to craft our equipment.

I had the Goron make me a new backpack, and used the Paradox Key to modify it in the same way that my old one had been so long ago. After re-stocking on food when I got to Kakariko Village, and buying some new clothes, I made my way through Hyrule towards the Kokiri Forest. The First step of the plan was to warn everyone of the coming danger.

As I made my way through Hyrule Field, I was very glad that I bought my new clothes when I did. I had a short sleeve shirt and some plain pants. I also wore a warm hooded cloak over everything in order to keep warm and to hide my face. I couldn't have a monster recognize me.

Luckily, I didn't run into too many monsters on my way to the Kokiri Forest. The Independent knights were doing a fine job of containing Ganondorf's force in the areas close to the castle, but it was only a matter of time before they could get through.

I made it to the Kokiri Forest, and crossed the bridge that linked it to the outside world. It was my first time seeing it in person, and I could not help but stare at the beautiful and giant trees that were surrounding me. Insects were happily chirping and flying through the air, oblivious to what was happening.

After crossing the bridge, I eventually came across a pair of girls that were walking through the woods and gathering fruits from low branches. I coughed for their attention, and when they saw men, they froze.

"Hello! I need to speak to the leader of your village. It's important," I said. The girls looked at each other, and after a small debate they decided to lead me to Kokiri Village. When we made it there, the girls began shouting for everyone to gather around me.

It was strange seeing all of these kids of my age converging on me. There wasn't a single adult nearby. They were all talking amongst themselves, and a few brought a bit of attention to my ears. Once they were all gathered, a blonde boy stepped forward, and addressed me.

"You are the first outsider to come to Kokiri Forest in a long time. Who are you?" He asked me. I took a deep breath.

"My name is Dante. I am a friend of Link, and I came here with a very important message," I said. I saw the boy's eye twitch when I mentioned Link's name, and a few murmurs began to buzz in the crowd. The boy that was standing in front of me looked a bit angry.

"Link is no friend of ours anymore! He broke the rules when he left us and killed the Great Deku Tree!" He said. I raised an eyebrow when I heard him say that.

"Link didn't kill the Deku Tree!" I said defensively. I closed my mouth when I said that, and the boy stepped towards me.

"How would you know anything about that?" He asked. I stared him down.

"Because Link told me what happened. I asked him a lot of questions about where he came from after I met him. He kept on telling me how great you people were," I replied. I told them that Link also told me the story of what happened inside of the Deku Tree, and of the mission that he received from it before it died. I told them about our adventures, and how we were sent by Zelda to acquire the other spiritual stones.

"Liar! Link would never be able to-" The boy began.

"Quiet Mido!" A girl said. The boy turned around, and took a surprised step back when a green haired girl stepped forward.

"Saria!" Mido exclaimed.

"I know he's telling us the truth! Everything he said sounds exactly like something Link would do!" Saria said. Mido retreated a few steps. Either he was afraid of this girl, or he had a huge crush on her.

"Saria... Link told me a lot about you," I said. Saria nodded.

"Is Link ok?" She asked me. I froze, and after a few moments I answered.

"It's complicated," I answered. Saria furrowed her brow, and asked me to clarify.

"Link isn't the most important issue here. He isn't in danger, but he isn't safe either. Either way, what I came here to tell you is way more important than him," I said. I told them about what happened at Hyrule Castle, and told them about Ganondorf's victory.

"We weren't able to stop him. We failed," I said. My head fell down in shame, but I quickly picked myself back up.

"Despite our failure, we haven't given up. Link is currently getting stronger in order to face Ganondorf, and I'm currently trying to minimize the damage that he will cause when he inevitably comes here," I explained. The children all shot uncomfortable glances at each other.

"What do you mean?" Saria asked.

"Ganondorf will come to the Kokiri Forest, sooner or later. He will ask you to submit yourselves to his rule. I am warning you against resisting. If you resist him, he will set his monsters on you and you will not survive," I explained. Many of the children began crying out in protest to what I was saying.

"Why would we want to let a monster like that rule us!?" They asked. I tried to hush them, but Saria had to step in for me.

"Quiet!" She shouted. After they all quieted down, I began speaking again.

"Although I'm asking you to submit to Ganondorf, I'm not asking you to completely serve him. I am going to be organizing a group of knights together in an attempt to resist him. We won't be affiliated with any one people, but we would appreciate it if we could get help whenever we needed it. Just make sure Ganondorf's forces never find out you're going to be involved with us," I said. The children spoke amongst themselves again, and finally agreed to my plan.

I learned that the Kokiri were experts in potion brewing. Although the Gorons, Zoras, and Hylians did have some skilled alchemists, the Kokiri were king in that field. It was unfortunate that they never actually traded with anyone outside of the forest, otherwise they could have made a lot of money.

I ended up having to spend the night in Kokiri Forest. Saria decided to lead me to a single empty tree-house that once belonged to Link. We climbed the latter, and she showed me inside.

"This was his old house," She said. It was fairly plain. There were a few pots, a single bed, and a table. I was actually surprised that there wasn't much in here, but then again, I had to remember that Link grew up in a forest.

"I didn't expect it to look like this," I answered honestly. Saria smiled.

"How close were you with him?" She asked me. I put my pack sack down on the bed.

"We were good friends. He saved my life so many times, that I lost count and never expected me to repay him for it," I answered. Saria's smile never left her face.

"He's always been like that. Link loved helping people," She said. I nodded.

"Yeah, he also liked to talk about you a lot," I replied. I saw just the tiniest amount of blush appear on her cheeks.

"He did?" She asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah, he said that you were his best friend. Although he never told me that he missed you, I'm sure he was thinking about you whenever he played that Ocarina of his," I said. Saria looked at me, and looked very happy.

"I'm glad I gave it to him. I hope you weren't lying when you said he wasn't hurt," She replied. I uncomfortably scratched the back of my head.

"Well you should be a bit more proud of yourself. Your Ocarina saved his life," I said. I was unsure if telling her about Ganondorft taking it was a good or bad thing, but figured that I'd be honest with her.

"How?" She asked me. I told her about our encounter with Ganondorf and how he took it thinking it was the Ocarina of Time. Saria was covering her mouth, and looked scared.

"I'm sure that if Ganondorf didn't take that Ocarina, he would have killed him. You saved him, Saria," I said. Saria still had a look of shock on her face, but regained her composure. She did look relieved after I finished the story, but she also looked sad.

"I put a lot of effort into making that Ocarina. Although I'm sad that it was taken, I'm also glad that it did save his life," She said. I nodded, and shook her hand.

"You didn't only save his, but mine as well. Thank you," I said. Saria looked at my hand, and back at me. She smiled, and told me that it wasn't a big deal. I laughed when she said that.

"That's exactly what he would say in a situation like this!" I giggled. Saria also laughed, and agreed with me.

She left shortly after, and I got into bed. She really was a sweet girl, and I could see why Link cared about her. An evil grin spread on my face, I would totally bug him about her as soon as I saw him again. I made sure that I promised myself that I would tease him again.

I left the Kokiri Forest a few days later. We went over a few plan details together, and the Kokiris eventually designated the maze in front of the Forest Temple as the place where anyone who was seeking their aid should go to in order to avoid detection from Ganondorf's monsters. I was shown the way a few times in order to memorize it. The Lost Woods were quite frightening, and I was glad to be out of them once I left.

The next stop on my journey was the Zora's Domain. As I began walking towards Lake Hylia, I began feeling a bit nervous. I remembered my last conversation with Princess Ruto, and was suddenly worried about having to marry her when I got back. I froze in my tracks when I realized that the Zora's Sapphire was all the way in the Temple of Time... Right in the heart of Ganondorf's territory.

Suddenly, I really didn't want to go to the Zora's Domain. But I convinced myself that the current state of the world was more important than the fit that Ruto was likely to throw when I got there.

When I made it to Lake Hylia, I was surprised to see that there were no Zoras anywhere. I also remembered that they only came out to trade, which wasn't very often. My fingers rubbed the Zora scale that was on my neck, and a crazy plan formulated in my head.

Maybe I would be able to swim to the Zora's domain with it? I was, after all, able to hold my breath for a longer period of time than a normal person. But I also knew that Zoras swam much faster than people did. The trip to the domain last time was short, but my lungs were at their breaking point by the time I made it. Swimming it at a normal speed, even if I had the scale, was probably not going to succeed.

Either way, I had to make it. Throwing caution to the wind, I dove into the water and swam to the tunnel entrance. I made my way through it as quickly as possible, and my lungs began to hurt. I made it quite a long way through it before holding my breath was starting to become painful. Still I kept on going, and soon the exit was almost in sight. The only problem was that my vision was going black, and my lungs were threatening to make me take a breath.

I feebly kicked and pulled my way through the water, but didn't make it out of the tunnel before I unconsciously attempted to take a breath. Water entered my lungs and I immediately began coughing and gagging. There was no air, and I was going to drown. Everything went black as soon as I felt something pull me.

I woke up in a bed, with someone's head resting on my chest. I looked, and saw Ruto's sleeping face staring up at me. I smiled when I saw her, the memories of our kiss were coming back to me. My smile faded when a new question popped into my head. Why did she fall in love with me?

I seriously doubted that rescuing her had anything to do with it. In the game, she fell in love with Link right after they left Jabu-Jabu's belly, and despite asking him to carry her around, the in-game Link would use her to press switches or would throw her around to hit levers he couldn't reach.

Was it because of my attitude towards her when I met her? Out of every possible thing that could be the reason, this seemed the more likely. If Link from the game throwing her caused the game Ruto to fall in love, then I figured the real world equivalent of not putting up with her attitude would also have the same effect.

I stirred, and Ruto opened her eyes. She looked at my eye, and smiled. She leaned towards me, and kissed my cheek.

"I'm so glad you're ok," She said. I sat up and almost immediately lied back down. I had a killer head ache.

"I'm glad to see you to," I said. Ruto grabbed my hand.

"Did you come back to marry me?" She asked. I shook my head.

"Not yet. I have to speak to your father. It's important, and it's very serious," I said. Ruto sensed the alarm in my voice.

"What's wrong?" She asked. I took a few moments to prepare myself.

"Link and I... We failed our mission. Hyrule has fallen to Ganondorf," I answered. Ruto gasped.

"What?" She asked.

"When we got back, Ganondorf's monsters were already fighting with the castle's knights. We got the Stones to the temple, but something happened and Link got trapped inside. Ganondorf took over the castle and I barely escaped," I answered. I sat up again, and ignored my head ache.

"You don't think-" Ruto started.

"Ganondorf is going to come here. He won't settle for just Hyrule. He wants to conquer everything. I came here to warn you about him," I interrupted. Ruto's eyes were wide, and I looked at her very seriously.

"Help me up, take me to your father," I said. She listened, and helped me reach the King's chambers. I told him the story, and he listened intently. He may not like me much anymore, but at least he was willing to take what I had to say seriously.

"We must prepare ourselves for his arrival in that case," The Kind said. It took me a few moments to register what he was saying.

"No! You can't fight him! You will have to surrender if you don't want-" I began.

"No! The Zora people are a proud race. We will not allow anyone to impose their will on us!" The King exclaimed. I was shaking my head. The Gorons had a better chance against Ganondorf, and they eventually saw that surrendering was a better option. If they surrendered, they would be able to surreptitiously aid any rebel parties without raising suspicion.

"My lord please. I will be joining a band of Independent knights who have survived the battle at Hyrule. If you surrender to Ganondorf, but help us from behind the scenes, your people will suffer less than if you resist and we will be doing whatever we can to-" I began. The King silenced me.

"I'm sure that what you are saying is sincere and that you have our best interests at heart, but we will not give in. The Zoras have existed for centuries as an independent race, and we will continue to do so. We will meet Ganondorf's forces with force," He said. I was about to protest again, but Ruto stopped me.

"Dante, as much as I want to agree with you, I don't think I would be able to kneel to a false king. I don't want to lose our independence," Ruto said. I looked at her incredulously. She was siding with her father?

"What? Ruto, you guys aren't equi-" I began.

"Thank you, Dante, but your presence is no longer required. I appreciate the warning but we do not need you to make our political decisions for us," The King said. I looked at him, and then gritted my teeth.

"Fine," I said. I stormed out of the room, not even bothering to see if Ruto was going to follow me or not. I went back to the bed chamber I woke up in, and grabbed my back pack. Ruto showed up a few moments later.

"Dante, I'm sorry. You need to understand-" She began.

"I'm trying to protect you. Why can't you guys see that?" I interrupted. Ruto went quiet, but her face took on a hard edge.

"Dante! I am not a defenceless little girl, and the Zoras are not a defenceless people!" She exclaimed. She grabbed me by the shoulders.

"I know what you're saying. You're asking us to bow our heads while you and the knights play hero. Well guess what? This isn't a fairy-tale, and we aren't inside of Jabu-Jabu's belly. We're talking about kingdoms here," She continued. I looked at her again. She looked very determined to resist Ganondorf.

"I appreciate that you want to protect us, but you can't do everything on your own. Let us defend our own borders while you try to free Hyrule," She said. I gave up on arguing with her. There was no way that she'd see things my way. I nodded my head in defeat, and she raised my chin.

"I promise I'll be ok. By the way, I started learning how to defend myself shortly after you left," She said. I looked at her for a few moments.

"What do you mean?" I asked. She told me that the captain of the guard was teaching her how to fight. She told me that it was because of something Mika said shortly after Link and I left the Zora's Domain. I smiled when I heard her. The real Ruto kicked all kinds of butt!

I kissed her cheek, and told her that I wouldn't involve myself with the Zoras if she didn't want me to. She smiled, and hugged me.

"You still have to come and marry me when I come of age," She said. I nodded.

"I know, but that's in... 4 or 5 years?" I asked. Ruto nodded.

"I'll be waiting for you. Make sure you show up on time," She said. I nodded again, promising her that I wouldn't miss the day.

I don't know why I agreed to it. She had this aura that made me comply to every single one of her demands. I left the Zora's Domain a few days later, and went to find the Knights. I learned that Ganondorf's forces managed to finally scatter them and make it to Kakariko. Everything went according to plan when the Gorons surrendered. Ganondorf didn't curse their mountain, but put them to work on supplying his army with weapons.

While Ganondorf was busy supplying his army, I was busy training with the Knights. They accepted me without much of a fuss. Anyone who was willing to join them was welcome regardless of their age. Naturally, because I was young, they didn't actually let me see any action. Instead, they trained me.

Because of the Kendo and Bojutsu classes that I have taken before coming here, the Hylian knights were intrigued by my fighting style. They quickly realized that I was trained to fight with single edged weapons, and staffs. So, my training didn't so much involve learning how to fight, but rather duelling many individuals in order to develop my style further, since they couldn't exactly train it out of me.

Before I knew it, I've spent a whole 4 years training with the knights, and helped them out on a few raids. They weren't large, just a few attacks on supply caravans. We stole weapons and supplies, and so far the Gerudo King's forces couldn't pin the blame on any of the people of Hyrule. I kept my Paradox Key use to a minimum in order to allow it to recharge all of its energy in case I needed it in an emergency situation.

Ganondorf didn't start going to war with the Zoras yet, because he still wanted to explore diplomatic solutions in order to gain control of them. When I turned 17, however, the Zora resistance was swiftly crushed by Ganondorf himself. While he was away, a group of Knights went to the former castle town, and slaughtered many of the horses and monsters that were there. Naturally, Ganondorf was furious, and rooted out one of our groups. It wasn't pretty, but the message he sent us was very clear.

I hoped that Ruto was safe, but I also had a few other things to worry about. Among the dead of the unit Ganondorf's forces took out was our leader, a man by the name of Gawain. Morale was running low, and despite my efforts to boost it, it looked like our resistance was on the verge of collapse. There was only so much fight in a person before their spirit broke, after all.

I decided that the independent knights needed someone to lead them, but I also knew that I couldn't do it as myself. I travelled to Death Mountain, and brought a piece of parchment along with me. I decided to pay a visit to the giant Goron who lived at the top of the mountain.

Ganondorf's forces didn't need a new shipment of weapons or armour any time soon. That meant the chances of me being discovered were very low. I spent a single night in the Goron city, and used the Paradox Key to add a few designs on the piece of parchment. The following morning, I made it to the giant's home.

The Giant Goron, who was called Biggoron, rose from behind a set of tall rocks. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and looked at me. A smile spread on his lips.

"Hello Dante, do the Independent Knights need new weapons and armour?" He asked. It wasn't the first time I visited him. He has made and repaired equipment for us in the past.

"No, there is a big problem. Our leader is dead, and the rest of us are losing morale. We need a new leader," I said. I held out the parchment, and Biggoron grabbed it with his index and thumb. Although he was a giant, he was very adept at handling small objects.

"What's this you got here?" He asked as he began studying the designs I gave him. Thanks to the magic of the Paradox Key, the blueprint was very detailed.

It was a drawing of a set of armour and two weapons. The armour was based of a Kendo Bogu. The Shoulder pads were styled after that of a samurai, and the helmet had a front grate like that of a Men helmet. The difference between a standard Men and this, was that the right side of the grate was just a solid wall of metal, because of my right eye being useless. The rest of the Armor was very reminiscent of that of a Samurai. I wanted to look unique to everyone else while wearing it. So that the Knights could see a leader who was able to distinguish himself, and one who was not afraid of letting the enemy know how he was.

The two weapons were a Katana and a Nagimaki. Since I used to Practice Kendo along with Bojutsu, I figured that I mostly knew how a Katana worked. Sure, it wasn't as ideal a weapon as a standard double edged longsword, but it was what I was most comfortable with. The Nagimaki, was a lot like a Katana, except the main difference between the two was that the handle for the Nagimaki was just as long as the blade. I read many times in the past that wielding one was similar to wielding a Katana, and that it was mainly used against horsemen. Although most of Ganondorf's forces didn't use horses, he did have a few Darknuts and wicked men in his army.

Biggoron studied the blueprints for a few moments. And then looked at me with a smile. He ducked down, and came back up with a few tools in his hands, as well as a head mounted magnifying glass.

"I like your designs, but I do see a few areas where it can be improved. Come back in a few weeks and I'll have it ready for you," He said. I shook my head.

"I don't have that kind of time. The knights need a new leader to boost their morale as soon as possible. I have something that could accelerate the forging process," I said. I reached into my pocket, and pulled out the Paradox Key. Biggoron watched it.

"What is it?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"You don't need to know. All I can say is that I can use it to accelerate your work process. But in order to do that you'll need to involve me in it," I said. Biggoron thought for a few moments, then nodded.

"Very well, But I'll tell you when or when you shouldn't use it," He said. I nodded, and Biggoron picked me up and put me down in his forge.

It took a whole week of work to prepare the armour. Biggoron also had to stitch new garments for me in order to complete the set. Although most of it looked the same, there were a few differences thanks to the design changes that Biggoron implemented. I used the Paradox Key to aid Biggoron during moments within the forging process that would normally require a lot of time.

The most notable one was to the helmet. Unlike in my original design, the grate was more elaborate, and looked more artistic. The slits were thinner, and didn't stretch from the centre point all the way to the side. He told me that he feared my old design would make it too easy for a blade to stab me in the face. Instead of something like 12 slits, there were now five. He also added a feather on the top of the helmet that was fairly long and would easily reach my lower back.

The left shoulder pad was changed, and instead of being eastern in its design, it was more western. There was a large pauldron on the left side of the armour, rather than the Sode shoulder pad that was originally there. The reason behind this change was if I decided to use a shield, my shield arm would be better protected thanks to the extra armour. The left gauntlet was also more heavily armoured than the right one. I was a bit worried about how it would affect my strikes, but after trying it on, I noticed that the loss in flexibility was minimal.

The Hakama and the Hitatare were a dark purple and dark red. The Armor was also red, but had golden trimming at the edge of many plates. Once it was finished, I tried it on and did a few swinging movements in order to get a feel for the armour.

It was surprisingly light, despite being mostly made of metal, but that was more thanks to a change I did with the Paradox Key rather than Biggoron's work. Still, it was a wonderful work of art, and I was interested in seeing what would happen to my swords.

As it turned out, Biggoron didn't really do many changes to the blades, apart from adding a second edge to the Katana, rather than leaving it with a single edge. The Nagimaki also had an added second edge. Biggoron smiled when he saw me with the weapons and the armour. The Nagimaki was secured to my back, while the Katana was on my left hip. I stood in front of him.

"How do I look?" I asked. Biggoron's smile never left his face.

"Like a foreigner," He answered. I sighed, and shook my head.

"I mean, if I took leadership, would I be able to gain followers looking like this?" I asked. Biggoron shrugged.

"I think your actions would be more important in deciding if you're worth following or not," He answered. My gaze was drawn to other items that were lying around in the forge, before it settled on a smaller object.

"What's that?" I asked. I pointed at an item that looked surprisingly useful and familiar. Biggoron looked at it, grabbed it, and gave it to me.

"It was something I was working on for Ganondorf's assassins. I call it a Hookshot," He said. My eyes lit up and I looked back up at Biggoron.

"I'll take a pair," I said immediately. I remembered that if Link ever returned, he would need one too. Biggoron raised an eyebrow.

"I don't have that many, if you take them, I might not be able to finish my shipment on time," He said. I gave him a hard stare.

"I'm going to need these. Remember your oath to help us?" I asked. Biggoron paused for a few moments, and sighed.

"Very well," He said. He dug around his forge for a few moments, and pulled out another Hookshot. I thanked him for it, and he lifted me out of his forge. He put me down outside, and asked me a question.

"Would I be able to borrow that cube from you? It would greatly help me finish my work on time," He asked. I shook my head.

"I doubt anyone other than myself can use it. Sorry, but you're going to be on your own for that," I said sincerely. I couldn't afford to spend any more time here, and he knew it.

Problems began arising almost as soon as I left the Biggoron's home. I made my way down the mountain, and quickly ducked behind some rocks when I saw a troupe of men and women marching up the side of the mountain. Their banner was Ganondorf's. If I was seen here, the Gorons would be in big trouble. I cursed because I couldn't just take off the armour either. The Paradox Key was also running low on energy, so using it to get out of here also wasn't an option.

My only hope was to make it out of here without anyone seeing me. cautiously, I peeked out of my hiding place, and when I thought the coast was clear, I began sneaking my way down the mountain. Every time I'd catch a glimpse of the marching troupe, I'd take cover again. This was bad, this was really bad.

I realized that I would have to go right by them in order to safely make it down the mountain. I staid as much off the path as I could, and had to make a few dangerous jumps and drops in order to stay off the road. I could hear the troupe talking. The were stopped outside of the Goron city, and were speaking with Darunia. The speaker was a woman, most likely from the Gerudo valley, who was reading a letter from Ganondorf. It was adressed to Darunia, and was asking him to step down as leader of the Gorons. If he refused, I was sure that something terrible would happen.

Right after the woman finished reading the letter, I slipped and fell. My armour and weapons made all sorts of loud sounds along with the rocks that fell along with me. I rolled down the side of the mountain, and came to a stop right in between Darunia and the woman. I looked up at them in a daze, and waved awkwardly.

"Uhmm... Can any of you fine gents show me the way to Kakariko?" I asked. A few moments of silence followed, before Ganondorf's forces all drew their weapons. Darunia quickly grabbed me, and pulled me up. He tossed me behind him, and shouted at his Gorons to attack Ganondorf's forces.

The Gorons that were outside with Darunia all roared their battle cries and charged the dark forces. Ganondorf's troupe was caught completely by surprise, and barely had enough time to react to the new threat. I watched as blades bounced harmlessly from the hides of the Gorons, while others managed to inflict minor wounds. I was beginning to wonder why I encouraged the Gorons to surrender to Ganondorf, They kicked ass!

Darunia retreated into the city with me, and grabbed me by the shoulders. He asked me if I was all right. I nodded, but bowed my head in shame.

"I'm sorry I ruined your meeting. I was trying to get by without being seen," I said. Darunia shook his head.

"No, don't worry about it. I was already at my wits end with Ganondorf. I was planning on ordering an attack anyways," He said. I looked at him incredulously, my helmet masking my face.

"What? Are you insane? The Zoras were unable to fight him off once he personally showed up to crush them!" I exclaimed. Darunia raised an eyebrow.

"Did he crush them?" He asked. I was confused.

"Why are you asking me? I heard the report from Ganondorf's forces," I replied. Darunia laughed.

"Yes, you heard their version of events. I will have you know that ever since you warned everyone of the danger, the Gorons and the Zoras have been keeping in contact thanks to a very skilled messenger," Darunia said. This was news to me. I never even heard of this, and the Independent Knights had access to reliable information on every single aspect of the current affairs in Hyrule.

"A messenger?" I asked. Darunia nodded, and led me deeper into the city. We descended many levels, and I realized that my previous knowledge of the City was actually very limited. We were quickly making our way through tunnels that I have never seen before.

"Did you know that water from Lake Hylia reaches the very interior of Death Mountain?" He asked me. I shook my head, but then remembered that in the game, the Lost woods was connected to every single location in the land. If water from the lake passed through there and made its way into the mountain, it was easy to imagine that the Gorons and the Zoras have been in touch with each other for a long time.

"How else do you think we've been able to trade with the Zoras?" Darunia asked. I nodded silently.

"Well, their messenger has been using this underground stream in order to relay information to us from their end of the land. Although the Zoras did suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the dark lord, they weren't completely beaten. They've only left the Zora's Domain, but they didn't leave Hyrule yet," Darunia explained.

"Who is this messenger?" I asked. Darunia led me into a cavern that was cooler than the rest of the Goron city, and I saw a large pool of crystal clear water. A single Zora was standing at its edge. He was a few years older than me, and wore a few pieces of armour that was fashioned from the bones of large fish. I recognized him.

"Mika!?" I asked. The Zora watched me for a few moments, and I removed my helmet. His eyes lit up when he saw me.

"Dante!" He exclaimed. We ran up to each other and I hugged him.

"Mika! How have you been?" I asked. I was smiling from ear to ear. The last time I saw him, he had me replace him as Ruto's fiancee in order to pursue his dream of finding adventure. Looking at him now, I could not help but feel like he finally achieved his dream.

"I'm fine. I've managed to keep the Gorons informed about our situation. And I also participated in a few battles as well. I feel like a real adventurer now!" He said. I stared at him a bit blankly. He still seemed very naive. The whole evil-taking-over-the-world thing didn't seem to bother him that much.

"Darunia said that the Zoras weren't done resisting against Ganondorf, is that true?" I asked. Mika nodded.

"The Queen is currently trying to figure our how to take back the Zora's Domain. The only problem is that she seems a hell of a lot more grumpy than she usually is and it is kind of getting in the way of her thinking," Mika answered. A few parts of his speech didn't make a lot of sense for me.

"Queen?" I asked. Mika nodded.

"Yeah, when Ganondorf crushed our first resistance, the King lost his life. Ruto is now the leader of the Zoras," Mika answered. I blinked a few times, and then slapped my hand against my forehead.

"Ohh man, she's gonna kill me when she sees me again!" I exclaimed. I remembered the promise I made a few years ago. I was suddenly afraid of having to go back to see the Zoras again.

Darunia coughed loudly in order to get our attention. It was very welcome thing, though the following conversation could have been a bit more cheerful.

"Mika, the Gorons have begun to actively resist Ganondorf's forces," Darunia told him. Mika looked at him, and a sombre expression came upon his face.

"You know what that means, Darunia?" He asked. Darunia nodded.

"Yes, Ganondorf will involve himself sooner or later. And when he does we will lose our battle," Darunia replied. I furrowed my brow.

"Wait, doesn't he need the Gorons to supply his army with weapons?" I asked. Darunia nodded.

"Yes. We might very well end up as slaves," Darunia answered. I looked at him, and shook my head. I couldn't understand why he was willing to do this to his people.

"Why would you actively resist knowing what will happen?" I asked. Darunia smiled at me.

"It's a matter of pride. We staid quiet long enough. You need to leave, and Mika can help you," He said. I looked at Mika, who nodded.

"I didn't think I'd be leaving here with a human, but I don't have any objections. I'll drop you off near Kakariko Village. I'm certain you can start making your way out by yourself once you're there right?" Mika asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, let's go," I said. Mika nodded, and we dove into the water. I was a little worried about rusting my armour, but figured that if it did rust, I could fix it with the help of the Paradox Key.

After Mika dropped me off at the edge of a river that ran close to Kakariko Village, I Made my way outside, and into Hyrule field. I had to find the knights.

It didn't take long to convince them that I was a worthy successor to Gawain. The appearance that my armour gave me, along with the new strategies that I was coming up with for disrupting Ganondorf's operations throughout Hyrule were winning over the remaining knights. Despite our successes, our numbers still kept on dwindling. More knights were either going into hiding, or getting killed. Soon there was only a handful of us, and there wasn't much we could do. It was a hard year, but I managed to survive.

Ganondorft cursed Death Moutain during that time, and dried up Lake Hylia. He also planted many monsters in the Kokiri Forest in order to ensure that the children remain loyal to him. Everything that happened in the game was unfolding right before my eyes, and I wasn't doing a good job of stopping it.

The worst part was when he finally managed to wipe out the remaining Independent Knights. It happened during a full moon. We were camped out in Hyrule Field, waiting for a supposed supply caravan to pass by in order to raid it. It turned out that the information was false, and that we were led right into a trap.

A large group of Darknuts descended on us at night. They already manage to take out a few of us before we knew what was going on. By this point, I have already been using my Nagimaki in combat, but I realized that I was still far from mastering it. When I was put on the defensive, I was forced to switch to the Katana.

We were scattered, and not many of us were left standing. The few knights that were standing along side of me eventually began to beg me to order a retreat. I reluctantly agreed, and after escaping our attackers, the remaining survivors all disbanded. Their hope was utterly crushed, and they didn't see any possibility of winning against Ganondorf. I tried to boost their morale, convince them that we weren't done yet, but no one listened. They left me the following morning. I was alone, but I refused to give up.

I wasn't the scared young boy I was many ago. Throughout the years I have faced Ganondorf's monsters many times, and I have become strong. I was not going to let the disintegration of the Independant Knights keep me from resisting Ganondorf. Even if every other person in the land bowed down to him, I would hold my ground and refuse to give in to him.

Working alone was a lot harder than doing anything with a group. I had to avoid monster patrols, and keep my targets small. Ganondorf's monsters eventually began to recognize me, and when they did, a bounty was put on my head.

I had a few close calls, but none of the evil king's creatures manage to do me in. They eventually learned that my weapons were unable to permanently deal with Stalfos, so eventually the creatures that were in charge of my elimination were nothing but immortal walking skeletons. Needless to say, it made things way more complicated.

I don't remember when I got the idea, but I do know that I eventually caught wind that Ganondorf was going to replace his lost stallion with a new horse from the Lon Lon Ranch. I remembered that in the game, Epona was the horse that he was going to chose, so I hatched a small plan to liberate the horse.

It was very simple. I would sneak into the Lon Lon Ranch, snatch the horse without anyone knowing I was there, and leave before anyone knew what was going on. I waited until the nights were especially dark before putting my plan into motion.

By this point, I had lost count of the amount of years that passed between the moment Link was sealed into the Temple of Time, and now. I was completely focused on my mission. I made my way towards the stables, and made sure that I was as quiet as possible. A small armour modification with the Paradox Key ensured that it wouldn't make as much noise as it normally would.

When the barn was in sight, I readied one of my Hookshots and as soon as I lined it up, I launched the hook. It latched on to the edge of the barn with a surprisingly loud _Twack. _A second later, I was dragged up to the edge of the Stable's roof, and pulled myself up. I lied down in order to keep anyone from seeing me if they looked up. I could hear voices, a girl and a guy were talking to each other.

"Did you hear that?" The boy asked. He sounded like he was my age.

"No, I didn't hear anything," The girl said. I heard one of them move.

"I can't believe what you're telling me! How could this have happened?" The boy asked. The door to the stables opened, and I saw a girl and a cloaked boy walk out. They were walking slowly towards the farm house. I couldn't really see any of the guy's features because of that grey cloak over his head. There was something protruding out the back, but I couldn't get a clear look at it either.

"I don't know. Ingo came back from the castle one day and completely changed. He kicked my father off of the farm too," The Girl said. I finally recognized her as Malon.

I decided to drop down as quietly as possible. The horses didn't seem to mind me as I hung off the edge of the roof and let go a moment later. I landed in a crouch, and began looking into every stall. Malon and her visitor were still walking away. I had to be quick and find Epona as quickly as possible.

"I'll take her away, she won't belong to him," I heard the boy said as I passed by the third stall. I found the horse I was looking for. Epona's fur was a bit darker than the rest, and her mane was white. I quietly opened the door to her stall, and untied her. I haven't ridden on many horses during these past seven years, so I prayed that I'd be skilled enough to get away with her.

"If you do that, Ingo will-" Malon began, but she stopped when she heard Epona's whine. I had mounted the horse, and spurred it into action. Epona bolted out of the stall, but instead of going where I wanted her to go, she began bucking and fighting to throw me off of her back.

I hung on for dear life as the horse cried and angrily shook its powerful body. I heard Malon cry out and demand that I let go of the horse. Something bright smashed into my face, and I was knocked off the horse.

I quickly scrambled to my feet and the boy who was standing next to Malon drew a weapon. He charged me, and I pulled out my Nagimaki. Our blades clashed and I was forced to retreat. I attempted to keep my opponent within my blade's maximum range in order to distance myself from his shorter sword.

We traded blows for a few moments, and I managed to cut the cloak from his body. His own blade scrapped along the side of my left pauldron after I barely blocked what would have been a lethal strike.

As his cloak fell back, I raised my blade to attack, but froze when I saw his face.

It was Link. He was older, and he was slightly shorter than I was. His face was expressionless, a look I remembered that he took on whenever he was in a fight. I barely recovered from my shock just in time to avoid a slash that was meant for my head. I rolled backwards and quickly sheathed my Nagimaki. Before Link could get close to me, I raised my hands.

"I surrender," I said. The point of the Master Sword stopped mere inches away from my throat. Link kept on looking at me, his expression never changing.

"Who are you?" He asked. I laughed, and removed my helmet. Link's eyes widened when he saw me. He lowered his blade, and stepped closer.

"Long time no see, huh?" I asked. The Hero of Time sheathed his sword and shield, and hugged me. I gave in to the joy I was feeling in seeing him again, and hugged him as well. Malon came closer, and also recognized me.

"Dante! What's with the armour?" Link asked. Navi flew in front of my face after I stepped away from my friend.

"You've really grown," She said. I smiled at her.

"A lot has happened while you two were gone. It'll take a while to get you guys up to speed with everything," I said. Malon put her hands on her hips, and asked me why I tried to steal Epona.

"It's all part of the story. If we can all find a quiet place to relax in, I'll tell you guys everything," I answered. Malon agreed to let me stay, and we all began making our way towards the farm house after putting Epona back in the stable.

I tapped Link on the shoulder, and held out one of my Hookshots. He looked at it with a puzzled expression.

"I got an extra one in case you came back. You can't expect me to keep all of the cool toys to myself right?" I asked. Link smiled, and thanked me.

Well, at least things weren't all bad. Link had finally returned, and that meant we were ready to face the next part of our journey. Despite everything that has happened, I could not help but smile as we entered the interior of the Farm House.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Escape from the Lon Lon Ranch

**Happy new year! I originally intended to post this chapter on December 25th, but got sidetracked and had to fix quite a few parts of it. I'm still not entirely happy with the fight scene, since I've only ever used Shinai's, Bo's and Jo's while practising martial arts, while I only have speculation and texts to base what using a Nagamaki would be like. So hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can shed light on that subject if they ever come across this story. **

"So you were the leader of a group of freedom fighters?" Link asked. Malon was seated next to him, and I was sitting across from them. We were all gathered around a table and we were a few hours into our conversation. I spent the entire time telling Link everything that happened over the past 7 years.

"Only temporarily. Remember, they lost all hope and abandoned me shortly before you got back," I reminded him. Link looked a bit thoughtful. He still had a hard time wrapping his head around everything that has happened. Not only that, but his personality didn't really change since we were both kids.

"And you came here to-" He began. I sighed.

"I literally just told you that!" I said. Navi let out a small laugh.

"Sorry, he's just really baffled by everything that has happened," Navi explained. I nodded with a sigh.

"Yeah, no kidding," I said. My helmet was sitting on the table right in front of me. I removed most of my armour, and it was all stored away in my backpack. The only parts of it I was wearing were my leggins.

Malon grabbed my helmet, and studied it. She tapped a finger against it a few times, and looked at me.

"It's quiet beautiful, but how the heck can you even see out of this thing?" She asked me. She handed the helmet back to me, and I put it back down on the table.

"The slits are positioned in a way that I can see out of it. Yes, my visibility is reduced, but I've been wearing it long enough so that I can more or less fight efficiently with it. Besides, I've already been fighting with only one eye for years, so reducing my visibility a bit more isn't a bit deal," I explained. Link smiled when I spoke.

"You've really changed, Dante," He said. I nodded.

"I know," Was all I could say. The door to the Farmhouse opened, and a familiar face walked in. The difference between now and the last time I saw him was that he looked even crankier than usual. He was about to say something, but he stopped when he looked at us. His eyes darted back and forth between the two strangers in his house.

"Hello Ingo," Link said. He waved, and Ingo shook his head.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. I grabbed my helmet, and tried my best to hide it. I had a small reputation as a dangerous rebel, and the look of my helmet was well known. If Ingo saw it, he might report me to the authorities. His eyes fell on me, and he saw what I was grabbing.

"You're him, aren't you?" He asked. I Quickly put the helmet in my backpack. I shrugged at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said calmly. Ingo's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. Link glanced at me, and back at Ingo. Although he already knew that I had a reputation, I don't think he ever thought that it could get me in trouble.

Ingo walked up to Malon, and stood over her. He looked her in the eye, and pointed back at the door.

"Ganondorf's men will be here to collect the horse in the morning. I want you to go out there, and prepare the horse for them," He said. I furrowed my brow.

"Why didn't you just do that yourself?" I asked. Ingo glared at me, but didn't say anything. Link got up and slammed his hand on the table.

"How could you allow Epona to be forced into Ganondorf's service?" He asked. Ingo looked at him, and shook his head.

"Oh great, another horse lover. It's just a dumb animal, it doesn't care who rides it," Ingo said. Link looked at Ingo with an incredulous look on his face.

"I won't let them take her away," Malon said. She defiantly sat there and refused to move. Ingo had a twitch in his eye. Without warning, he struck Malon across the face.

"Lazy girl! Do you want me to kick you off this ranch like I did to your father?" He threatened. Link's hands were balling up into fists. When he glanced at me, I shook my head at him and mouthed "Calm down" to him.

Malon got up, and went outside. Ingo turned towards us, and pointed at me menacingly. I stared him in the eye without blinking or flinching.

"I want you out of here right now. I know who you are, so don't play dumb with me!" He said. I leaned back in my chair.

"Why don't you make me leave?" I asked. I crossed my hands behind my head, gave him a bored look. He knew he wasn't able to intimidate me. A few years spent fighting monsters pretty much immunized me to whatever fear another human could make me feel.

"I'll report you to Ganondorf's forces if you don't leave," He threatened. I laughed out loud.

"Good luck reaching them," I said. I looked him in the eye, and he knew what I meant. He swallowed, and left the room. Link looked at me, and leaned towards me.

"We have to get Epona out of here right now," He said. I shook my head.

"Not now, it would look too suspicious," I replied. Link sighed.

"Dante, she's going to be taken tomorrow!" He replied. I leaned forward in my chair.

"We can't risk letting Malon and Ingo get blamed for Epona's theft either. We need to surprise everyone with it," I replied. Navi flew in front of me.

"Wouldn't that make us fugitives?" She asked. I grinned.

"I'm already a fugitive, and I doubt you'd want to stay quiet for very long, right?" I asked. Link hesitated for a moment, and nodded. I leaned back in my chard, and pointed at Link.

"Now, what's our next course of action chief?" I asked. Link blinked at me after a moment of silence.

"What?" He asked. I nodded at him.

"I assume that wherever you were, you got an insight or a hint on what to do next right?" I asked. Link 's eyes widened, and he leaned towards me. His voice hushed down and he began whispering to me.

"Right! Well, I was told by Rauru... uhh, He's the sage of light, to awaken the other sages in order to get their help to defeat Ganondorf," He explained. I nodded slowly.

"Ok, where are they?" I asked. Link scratched the back of his head.

"Well, we were told that there was a temple that was deep in the forest, so Navi and I assume that it was in the lost woods. A memory flashed in my mind.

"I've been there!" I said. Link looked at me, and raised an eyebrow.

"You have?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, there is a large maze in front of it that was designated as a safe zone for the Independent Knights if we ever decided to go to the Kokiri Forest. I saw it with my own eyes," I explained. Link's eyes lit up.

"Then you'll have to lead us to it!" He said. I nodded, and stood up.

"Alright then, let's get to bed, and get to work in the morning!" I replied. We quietly left the farm house, and went into the stables. Malon was there, getting Epona ready and looking absolutely miserable. We told her of our plan to rescue the horse, and she thanked us for it.

She allowed us to crash in the stables, and I took my armour out of my bag. I would need to put it on quickly when I woke up, so I needed it to be easy to reach. I grabbed a bit of hay and made a makeshift bed with it. Link did the same, and lied down a few feet away from me.

"I'm sorry about leaving for seven years," He told me after a long silence. I raised an eyebrow, and looked at him.

"I seriously doubt you could have done anything about Ganondorf during that time," I said. Link sat up and looked at me.

"You don't get it. While you were busy fighting, I was stuck in the Temple of Time. I didn't contribute to the fight at all!" He said. He sounded like he was seriously beating himself up over something he had no control of.

"Instead of worrying about the past, why not worry about what you can do now?" I countered. Navi flew up, and hovered in front of the hero's face.

"Dante is right. There is no point in worrying about the past. We need to worry about what we can do right now," She said. I nodded, but Link didn't look like he was feeling much better.

"We'll stick to the plan then... Go to the Forest and awaken the sage," He said. He reluctantly began to lie down again.

"Link... I'm not mad at you and I don't think you screwed up. I'm honestly glad that you're back and that we can finally finish this fight together," I said. The boy didn't say anything in response, but he gave me a small nod. I was certain that he knew I was being honest.

I fell asleep quickly, and dreamed about many incoherent things. One moment I was standing in a field, the next I was in my room playing video games, the next I was standing at a bus stop waiting for a ride. It was the usual, for the most part. There was one detail that stuck out to me, however. It was that everywhere I looked, whenever I saw another person, there was a Paradox Key following each and every one of them. I also had one that was hovering around me.

Before I could think more about this, Link was violently shaking me awake. As soon as my eyes opened, he shoved my breast plate on my lap and told me to suit up as quickly as possible. I was still groggy, but began getting dressed as quickly as I could.

"What's going on?" I asked quietly. I felt the need to whisper, whatever had Link panicking like this must have been very close.

"A small group of Ganondorf's soldiers showed up for Epona. Malon is stalling them, but we need to get out of here right now!" Link hissed. I raised an eyebrow, and got to my feet. I was working on my boots and gauntlets. After getting them done, I put on my helmet.

"Who's leading this group?" I asked. My mind's eye was flashing back to the night were the remaining independent knights were defeated. The Darknuts that attacked us had a leader who wore a horned helm. He never involved himself into the battle, but our eyes did meet briefly during that battle.

"It's a large Darknut. He looks really important," Navi said. I assumed that she was talking about the one I was thinking about, and immediately began making my way towards the barn's door. Link grabbed my shoulder firmly and turned me around.

"What the heck are you doing? You'll get us caught!" Link exclaimed. I shook my head.

"I'm not the weakling I was seven years ago. I also want to get even with that guy for taking out the knights. You wait until I engage him, then you get out of here with Epona. I'll try to meet you at the forest, ok?" I asked. Link furrowed his brow.

"I don't want to leave you here," He said. Navi also felt the need to speak.

"There aren't many soldiers, only about 6, but it's still too much for a single person to handle," She said. I nodded, but brushed off their warnings.

I was about to respond, when we started hearing sounds from outside of the stables. I hissed at Link to grab Epona, and told him to trust me. Ingo's voice was almost on the other side of the door. Malon was pleading with him to wait a moment, but he was clearly getting tired of her stalling the soldiers.

"They already know how to take care of a horse! Stop talking to them and let me complete our contract!" Ingo exclaimed in a very annoyed voice. Link mounted Epona quietly, and the horse didn't even struggle at all or try to buck him off. I quickly told Link that the plan had to change, and that he would need to leave without me. He wanted to object, but I hushed him.

As soon as the doors to the stables opened, Link dashed out with Epona, and Ingo had to dive out of the way in order to avoid getting trampled by the horse. I burst out of the stables right behind him, I grabbed Ingo by the collar and held him up in front of me. I got my first good look at what we were up against.

A few Gerudo soldiers were chasing after Link, but they were never going to catch up to him. The majority of them, however, were all turning back to me when they heard Ingo squeal in terror as he saw me draw the Nagamaki and hold it to his throat. I had no intention of actually hurting him, but I didn't want to get attacked yet.

My eyes were drawn to the large Darknut who was riding on top of an equally monstrous horse. The mount was wearing black armour, and had very stocky legs. I guessed that it was a war-horse that was specifically bred to be used by Darknuts.

The Darknust itself was not the one who lead the group that wiped out the independent knights. That being said, his heavy armour was much more intricate than that of most, so I was safe to say that he clearly held a high-rank in Ganondorf's army. He was larger than a normal man, and clearly wasn't human. Ganondorf's Banner was sprouting on a small flag that was attached to the back of his armour. He wielded a lance, and on his back, there was a large broadsword.

The soldiers that were keeping their eyes on me didn't get close to me thanks to my hostage. The Darknut looked at me intently, almost as if he was studying me. He finally leaned forward in his seat.

"Well this is a surprise. Looks like the former leader of the Independent Knights still isn't done trying to bring down the King," The creature said. It's voice wasn't particularly deep, but it was menacing. Ingo begged me not to hurt him, and I hissed at him to be quiet.

"Admirable, but you've clearly lost your touch. I remember when you used to lead raids against our convoys, but now you're stealing horses from ranches? You've fallen low," He continued. I heard a few of the female warriors chuckled a bit.

"I figured a change of pace would help excite things a bit. If you were me, you'd understand how boring it would become to constantly steal the same things over and over again," I replied. The Darknut didn't respond.

"Shall we kill him?" One of the Gerudo warriors asked. Another looked at her companion.

"What about the hostage?" She asked. The Darknut shrugged.

"He doesn't really matter. You can go ahead and kill the prisoner as well. Beside, I know for a fact that this eastern warrior won't harm Ingo," The Darknust said. He began turning his horse around to leave, and the Gerudos began advancing on me. I pushed Ingo to the ground, and pointed at the monster.

"Sending nameless soldiers to slay a leader? Where is your pride?" I asked. The Darknut froze, and turned around. I had him.

He began advancing towards me. The sound of his horse's hooves were heavy, and made him seem more dangerous than he already was. Although I wasn't planning on running away, I still felt a bit intimidated.

"Why not duel me and slay me yourself? Imagine how well rewarded you will be if you bring my head to your king. If your henchmen did it for you and brought the prize to Ganondorf, you won't be rewarded," I said. The Darknut thought about what I was saying, and stepped off his horse.

"Don't listen to him! He's trying to trick you!" One of the women said. The Darknut held up a hand to silence her.

He stared me down. He towered over me, and tightened his grip on his spear. I knew he was excited. Like all Darknuts, he must really love single combat.

"I don't want anyone to interfere. He's mine," The Darknut said. I pointed the tip of my blade towards him, and got in a fighting stance.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to beat him. Darknuts were much stronger than normal humans, and despite the seven years of non-stop fighting and training that I have just lived through, I was still not good enough to face such a monster one on one. My eyes surreptitiously glanced at his large horse. If I could grab that, I could make my escape and leave the ranch.

The Darknut readied its lance. I stepped in front of him, and raised my weapon next to myself. Throughout the years of using the Nagamaki, I've learned that trying to get into the same fighting stance that I normally would use with a Katana was nearly impossible. The weapon wasn't pointing at my target, but it was already ready to strike. I kept my eyes focused on my enemy, I took in every little detail, watching him and waiting for him to make the first move. Although only a short amount of time passed, it felt like an eternity.

I saw a very minor change in his grip on his wepaon, and quickly reacted a split second before he struck. I took a step diagonally backwards, and quickly brought my blade down near the centre of his lance as it was thrust forward. Keeping control of my blade, I stopped it just as it struck against the lance, and quickly raised it to counterattack. Stepping forward, I let out a shout and quickly brought down my blade.

The Darknut also reacted to my movements. He quickly let go of his lance with his right hand, and my blade barely missed his wrist. My right foot stamped on the ground, but I didn't stop moving there.

_Always follow through on your strikes, even if you miss. If you get very close, your opponent will not be able to counter_.

My left foot quickly followed behind my right one, and pushed me forward, I raised the Nagamaki again and Held it vertically in front of me. The Darknut raised his right forearm, and braced it against the handle of the blade. I made no attempt to separate. At this range, both of our weapons were useless, and we were unable to attack each other.

"What an unusual fighting style," The Darknut said.

"Works better than yours," I countered. We uneasily stayed close to each other, and then we both took half a step back. We both stopped, and without warning, I pushed against his arm with my weapon, and jumped backwards. During that split second of my small jump that had my feet off the ground, I raised my weapon. As soon as I landed, the blade hit the monster square on the forehead.

A split second before my blade landed, I had let out another cry with my attack. The blade smacked into the Darknut's forehead and dented the metal of his helmet, but he barely took notice of it. If I didn't already know that Darknuts were tough already, I certainly would have learned it then and there.

The Darknut chuckled, and hurled his spear at me. I barely managed to avoid it, and realized that I took my eyes off my opponent for a few moments. I felt something large smash into my side, and it sent me sprawling on the ground. My weapon left my hand, and flew through the air before planting itself into the ground a few dozen feet away from me.

My vision was a bit blurry, and I was confused. I could hear laughing, and got up as quickly as I could. The Darknut, as it turned out, hit me with the flat of his broadsword. The spear was merely a distraction that allowed him to close the distance between us. My legs felt a bit wobbly, but I refused to back down. I glanced at my weapon, and at the horse.

I would have a better chance at getting out of here alive if I went directly for the horse, and left the Nagamaki behind. However, after having that weapon save my life more times than I can remember, I was not willing to abandon it.

"I'm impressed you can still stand after a blow like that... Sadly, you don't seem to measure up to the tales that were being passed through our ranks," The Darknut said. I drew the Katana, and took a deep breath.

I had the shorter weapon, I was weaker, and I was smaller than him. I was at a clear disadvantage. The only time I've actually killed a Darknut was on the night the Independent Knights were destroyed, and I had 2 other people helping me take a single one down. I was beginning to regret my plan. I was certain that Link would be able to beat him without much of a problem.

The Darknut raised his weapon, and put himself between me and my discarded weapon. I felt him smile beneath his helmet.

"Your weapons and armour will make fine trophies," He said. An idea popped into my head. It was crazy, but it might just work.

I began running at him, and reached for my Hookshot. As I got closer, I threw myself towards him just as he threw a horizontal swing at me. I landed and began sliding a bit on the ground, and his blade missed me by a few inches. I quickly fired the Hookshot, and the chain passed between his legs, and hit him right in the groin.

The Darknut let out a high-pitched yelp, but the torture wasn't done yet. The Hookshot began reeling in its projectile, and because my opponent was so much larger and heavier than I was, I was pulled towards him. I slid between his legs, and slashed at his left thigh. I unhooked the Hookshot's chain, and I stopped sliding a few centimetres behind my opponent. He fell on his knee, and I quickly got up and began running for the Nagamaki. Although I hurt him, I knew it wouldn't keep him stunned forever.

I sheathed the Katana and grabbed the Nagamaki. I never broke my sprint, and immediately began making my way towards the large war horse. The Darknut was getting up, and he realized what I was doing.

"STOP HIM!" He shouted. I fired the Hookshot at the ground next to the horse, and slid along the ground again. The Gerudo warriors were unable to stop me from reaching the horse, and I quickly climbed onto it. The Stallion didn't even bother to try and buck me off, most likely because Ganondorf's war horses were trained to be perfectly obedient.

I got in the saddle, and drove my heels into the animal's sides. The horse reared back and began galloping away. The Darknut was moving to intercept us, and I readied the Nagamaki. It wasn't an ideal horseback weapon, but it would be adequate for what I had in mind. As we came up to the Darknut, he readied his sword, but because of his injuries, he was too slow. I swung the Nagamaki, and struck him across his helmeted face. The Darknut fell to the ground, alive, but defeated.

"See you later losers!" I shouted as I guided the horse out of the Lon Lon Ranch. The powerful hooves were pounding the ground with a drum-like beat. We flew out of the ranch, and I immediately lead the horse towards the Kokiri Forest. I saw a light flying around the field as if it was looking for something, and when it saw me, it headed in my direction. It was Navi.

"You made it out!" She exclaimed. I nodded at the horse kept on galloping.

"Yeah, I told you I'd be ok," I said. I was still in a bit of pain, but the adrenaline in my body was doing a good job of keeping it at a tolerable level. Sadly, adrenaline rushes were temporary, and I was not looking forward to the inevitable future pain.

"Link stopped a short ways away, close to the river," He didn't want to leave you behind, and sent me to check up on you," Navi said. I looked at her, and despite the helmet covering my head, I smiled.

"Thanks, but I'm ok," I replied. Navi pointed me in the right direction, and when Link came into view, I saw his eyes widen. I stopped the horse,and got off, bowing to my friend as if I had just finished a magic trick.

"Dante... Did you steal his-" He began.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Stealing is wrong, blah-blah-blah," I replied. Link cracked a smile, and he patted my shoulder.

"You've really changed," He said. I nodded and smiled in return.

"I know. Just so you know though, that Darknut is still alive. I wounded him, but he's most likely going to send his goons after us. We should get moving right away," I explained. Link nodded, and mounted Epona again. I climbed onto my new mount, and began following Link as we both began to gallop towards the Kokiri Forest.

Although my horse was fast, it was no match for Epona. As I began to fall behind, Link had to limit the speed at which Epona ran in order for me to stay close to him. We didn't reach the Kokiri Forest by the time we decided to give the horses a break, but we got a lot further than we would have if we were walking there.

As we began getting ready for bed, Link and I began chatting with each other. Our conversation was mainly focused on the Kokiri Forest.

"Did you talk to Saria when you went there?" He asked me as I set up my backpack as a pillow. I nodded in response.

"Yeah, she was very worried about you. She's a really nice girl," I said. Link nodded.

"I can't wait to see her again... Uhmm... You didn't tell her that I lost her Ocarina did you?" He asked. I looked at him, and tried to remember.

"I think I did, but I told her the truth and said that it saved your life," I replied. Link looked at me for a few moments.

"What was her reaction?" Navi asked for the hero.

"Well, she was a bit sad that it was lost, but she was also glad that it saved you," I replied. I was hoping that I was getting it right. My memory of that day was getting a bit hazy, which only further showed me that I had been spending a lot of time in this world.

Link seemed a bit satisfied with the answer, and silently sat there for a few moments. He was looking up at the sky, and suddenly laughed out loud. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and asked him why he was laughing.

"Oh it's nothing really. When I was growing up in the forest, I woke up one morning and decided to go and visit Saria like I usually did, but Midow cut a hole in the balcony of my house, so as soon as I stepped outside, I fell down from my tree-house and onto the grass below," Link answered. He chuckled a bit more, but stopped when he saw that my reaction was one of shock.

"Did you get hurt?" I asked. I didn't know what kind of prank it was supposed to be, but I think the story was having the wrong effect on me. I was beginning to dislike Midow more than I already did. Link stopped laughing, and shook his head.

"Of course not, The tree-house isn't that high off the ground. I was more annoyed than anything," He replied. I nodded slowly, still unconvinced. We trailed off into another awkward silence, and Link finally asked me another question.

"I never knew you were able to use a sword," He said. I looked at him, and shrugged.

"I did learn how to use it at the same time as the Bo," I replied. I drew the Katana, but didn't show him the Nagamaki.

"I got Biggoron to forge me a blade that resembled the ones from my country," I answered. I handed it over to Link, who took it and closely observed it. I was a amazed that despite beginning to forget a few things that had happened to me in this world, I was still able to remember my fake back story.

"So this is the kind of sword that the, uhh, I forget what they are called," Link said.

"They were called Samurai, and yes, that is the kind of blade that they used. The difference with this one, however, is that Biggoron added a second edge to it. The traditional swords only had a single edge," I said. I pointed to the added back edge to the weapon.

"It's heavier than my Master Sword," Link said. I nodded.

"Yeah, Katanas aren't quite as good as a Hylian long sword, but that's because we didn't quite have access to the best metals around, nor were we the best at forging things," I replied. Something came to mind.

"Actually, the counter to the Katana was a wooden quarter-staff. If I remember correctly, it was called a Jo. Basically, you had these wooden sticks that were used by law enforcement or Samurai to deal with other Samurai who were armed with sharp blades," I said. Link raised an eyebrow.

"How could a wooden stick beat a blade?" Navi asked. Link's mouth was open, but he shut it after glancing at Navi. I figured that she asked the very question that he wanted to ask.

"Well, Jos were longer than Katanas, so users had more range. Plus, the wood was very strong, and if a Katana managed to cut into it, it would remain stuck. If that happened, all the staff user needed to do was twist his weapon and drive the Katana towards the ground to bend the blade permanently," I said. I explained to him that traditional Katanas had a very big design flaw.

Traditional Katanas were created with a though metal core, and a hard metal edge. Because the tough metal was inserted into the hard metal, there was a weld between the two types of metals. Because of this, if one was to twist the blade, that weld would be damaged, and the blade would no longer be able to straighten again without the help of a blacksmith.

Link raised an eyebrow when he heard this, and asked me why I was using such a flawed weapon. I shrugged.

"Well for one: Biggoron improved on the design and created this particular one without the weaknesses of the traditional Katanas, and two: It's what I'm used to. Long swords feel awkward to use for me, but I don't feel any discomfort when using a Katana," I replied. Link nodded, and handed the blade back to me. I sheathed it before he asked me another question.

"What about that large one on your back?" He asked. I drew the Nagamaki, and handed it to him. His focus was mainly on the long handle of the weapon.

"That is called a Nagamaki. It's what you get when you cross a spear with a Katana," I answered. Link passed a hand along the handle.

"Jeez, the handle is as long as the blade!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah. Another popular name for this kind of weapon was 'Horse Slayer'," I said. Epona and the other horse glanced at me when I said that. I tried not to pay attention to them. Link also gave me an odd look.

"Explain?" He asked me.

"Well, this kind of weapon was meant to be used against Horsemen. The basic idea was to kill the horse, and then deal with the rider when he was on the ground," I replied. Link handed the weapon back to me, he didn't look like he wanted to hold it anymore.

"Why are you using something like that?" He asked me. I shrugged.

"Although I wasn't trained to use one, I was told that its use was a bit similar to that of a Katana and Naginata. Over the years, I've developed my own style, and use it as a distancing weapon rather than an anti-cavalry weapon," I replied. I also had to explain what a Naginata was.

Link stood up, and smiled. He looked at me, and held out the Nagamaki. In a mock fighting stance. It took me a few moments to understand what he wanted. After I understood, I stood up as well, and began directing him on how to hold the weapon.

I spent a few minutes coaching my friend on how to hold and swing the Nagamaki. Like a Katana, all strikes started from an overhead position. Link practised swinging the weapon in the air, and after he was satisfied, he handed it back to me.

"Do you want to try the Katana?" I asked. Link nodded, and I handed the second weapon to him again.

Link drew his shield, and I raised an eyebrow when he did. Link saw me, and seemed a bit confused.

"What?" He asked me.

"Shields were never used by... Never mind," I said. My Kendo restrictions no longer applied here, I had to remember that it was perfectly ok to use a shield in real life when using a Katana.

I slightly got Link to adjust his grip on the sword, but for the most part it was perfect. I put my hand on my chin, and began to think of how to coach him. I've never used a weapon in tandem with a shield before, so this was completely alien territory for me.

"Hmm, well... Striking with a Katana is also like the Nagamaki. It's mostly overhead strikes," I began explaining. Link eventually ditched the shield when preforming the attacks became awkward. After a good amount of time, he returned my weapon, and drew his Master Sword.

"Did you want to try the Long sword?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"The Knights already tried training me to use one before learning about my affinity for curved weapons. I can't wrap my head around it," I said. Link raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" He asked. I nodded.

"It's not that I don't understand the techniques, it's that they feel awkward for me," I explained. Link pouted slightly, but put away the weapon.

We sat down again, and he pulled out the Ocarina of Time. He began playing a few tunes, and I listened silently. After a few moments, Navi flew up to me, and asked me a question.

"Where is your guitar?" She asked me. I looked at her for a few moments, and lowered my head with a sigh.

"Ganondorf destroyed it along with the old backpack. It's gone," I explained. Navi seemed a bit sad about it.

"You didn't have it for very long," She replied. I nodded, and put my head on my knees.

"I can always get another one later... If Ruto doesn't end up banishing me when we return to Zora's Domain," I quietly said. Link made a mistake on the song he was playing, and looked at me.

"Did I hear that correctly?" He asked. I realized what I said, and clamped my hand over my mouth.

"Are you having relationship problems with Ruto?" Navi asked. I really didn't want to say anything else.

"Uhmm... nope?" I replied. I quickly moved away from the pair, but they followed me.

"Come on Dante, what's going on?" Link asked. A mischievous smile was on his face.

"I'm tired. I'm going to sleep," I replied. There was a slight edge to my voice, I was trying to let him know that I was not in the mood to joke around.

"Aww, come on Dante, why no-" Link began. I drew the Nagamaki, and pointed it at him.

"ONE MORE WORD AND I CUT YOU DOWN RIGHT HERE!" I shouted. My cheeks were feeling very hot. I was probably as red as a tomato. Link didn't take my threat seriously, and he knew that I wouldn't actually hurt him. Instead of going quiet, he laughed out loud.

I went to sleep feeling embarrassed. What Mika told me before getting me out of Death Mountain. I knew that we would eventually need to return to the Zoras in order to awaken their sage, and I was not looking forward to Ruto's reaction to my arrival.

I was awoken by another dream. It was the same as the last one, I was standing in a street, and there were many Paradox Keys following many different people. I don't know why it bothered me, nor do I know why I wanted to know if what I was seeing was actually real or just fiction.

For the first time in a long time, I pulled out the Paradox Key. I held it out in front of me, and let it hover in front of my face.

"Are you the only one?" I asked it. The key floated there in silence. I didn't look like it was going to answer my question.

_That question is not relevant to your current situation. You are also well informed on my use, therefore your question is redundant. _It said. I gritted my teeth.

"Answer my question. Are you the only Paradox Key?" I asked. The question seemed incredibly important. If there was more than a single Paradox Key, it could have some huge ramifications.

_I never said I was the only one._ It finally said. I looked at the key with a cold stare, and stuffed it back into my pocket. My thoughts went back to my dream. It was true. There was more than one Paradox Key.

I don't know why that bothered me. If that was true, it still didn't affect me. Still, I also figured that anyone who did end up with one and got taken to a new world was not immune to death. What sorts of adventures were these other users getting themselves into? How many of them died?

It was a miracle that I managed to survive the 7 years that Link was trapped in the Temple of Time. I seriously doubt that I'd be able to do it again. Link and Navi were still sleeping, and I figured that I'd need to rest up before we headed out again.

As soon as we woke up, we would make our way towards the Forest Temple and awaken the first sage. After that... Well, we'll decide on what to do next once we get there. For now, it was time to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Forest Temple

**Short Chapter, I know. But I didn't want to keep anyone waiting for too long. I have time to work on this story, So I'm going to try and release quite a few chapters before going silent for another long while. **

Well this was just fan-freaking-tastic. Just a few moments ago, Link and I left the horses just outside of the Kokiri Forest and were walking calmly through the woods. Nothing seemed to bad at first. Sure, the trails that the Kokiri children normally use to travel around were a lot more overgrown than the last time I saw them, but I certainly didn't expect to step right into the open maw of a freakishly large Deku Baba. I don't think Link expected it either.

In any case, my leg was in pain, and the plant was busy vigorously shaking me along the ground, trying to tear off a piece of flesh. I was glad that my armour was helping to hold me together, but even with the adrenaline coursing through my veins, all I could think about was trying to get that plant to let go of me.

I don't think a lot of time passed between me getting bitten, and Link drawing his weapon. Strangely, I had a lot of time to process the pain, and wail in agony as I was tossed back and forth. I was even reminded of that day in Jabu Jabu's belly when a similar thing happened with a man-sized tapeworm.

Link decapitated the Baba's head, and tore the mouth away from my leg. I was bleeding very badly, and Link immediately began to carry me towards the village. When I was on his back, I pressed a hand against my leg, and checked the colour of the blood. It was dark red, which was a good thing because it meant I probably wouldn't end up bleeding to death.

"Help!" Link shouted. The homes were in sight, but Link stopped dead in his tracks when he saw all of the monsters that were patrolling the area. There were a few Deku Scrubs, and many Deku Baba plants.

Link slowly put me down, and turned to me. I was already pulling out the Paradox Key. I've used it a few times to close up wounds, but doing that took up a hell of a lot of power. Link stepped forward, and brought up his shield. The Scrubs were already charging us as I was pressing the key against my wounded leg.

Flash-healing the wound took a whopping %30 of the Key's power reserves. Either way, I needed to be able to walk in order to fight. As soon as I was ready, I stood and drew the Nagamaki. Link was already fighting the scrubs, and I barely managed to reach them by the time the last one fell. Despite being trapped in the Temple of Time for seven years, Link's fighting abilities were still superhuman. I put away the Nagamaki, and Link finished taking out the rest of the Deku Babas. Once the village was clear of monsters, I stepped towards the middle of the village.

"Come out children! It's safe, we've slaughtered the bests!" I shouted. A few moments of silence passed, before Navi also began shouting.

"Everyone! It's me! I've returned!" She shouted. When they heard her voice, the children finally began to leave their homes. They were very cautious, poking their heads out from their doorways and making sure that what we were saying was true.

The children gathered around us, and surrounded us. A familiar face showed itself and stood in front of us. It was my least-favourite Kokiri child, Mido.

"Navi? Who are-" He began. His eyes settled on Link, and his jaw dropped. To my surprise, Link smiled, and I thought that I saw his eyes tear up a bit. Link stepped towards him, and got down on one knee.

"Hey Mido. Long time no see huh?" The hero of time asked. Mido took a step back, and shook his head. Link held out a hand for a handshake, and Mido slapped it away.

"No! What are _you_ doing here!?" Mido shouted. Link recoiled, and didn't seem to understand what was going on.

"What do you mean? I came back to-" Link began. Mido cut him off.

"If only you would have listened to me and not broken the rules! We're not supposed to leave the forest or bad things will happen! If you wouldn't have left, that other kid wouldn't have showed up and brought the monsters with him! We would all have been safe if you did break the rules!" Mido exclaimed. Other kid? Was he talking about me?

"Listen Mido, I didn't bring those monsters here!"I exclaimed. Mido looked at me, and recognized my eye patch. He put his hands on his hips.

"Oh yeah? Explain then, why did they show up?" He asked. I gritted my teeth. Link looked totally devastated. He was speechless.

"I warned you about them before they showed up so you could prepare yourselves. I told you that after I joined the Knights, that we would help you whenever we could," I said. Mido snorted.

"Yeah, that's why your guys only visited us once, and they got lost in the Lost Woods. Some help they were," He said. I stepped forward. I raised my eyebrow, and grabbed Mido by the collar.

"What did you say?" I asked. I remembered a small unit going missing after visiting the Kokiri Forest, but we always assumed that they had been killed by a patrol of monster on their way back.

"There are Stalfos in the woods because of them," Mido explained. I let him go and turned to Link. Navi was hovering around trying to convince the children that we were going to fix everything.

"Hey, Link! Buddy! Come on," I said. I snapped my fingers in front of his face, he slowly looked up at me. He looked lost, and for the first time, I actually saw Link in a different way. He was hurt.

"We need to awaken that Sage. That's the only way we'll help them, right?" I asked. Link blinked a few times, and regained his bearings. He nodded, and quickly shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

I heard Mido sigh loudly, and I turned and glared at him. He shook his head, and took a few steps in the direction of the Lost Woods.

"Saria said the same thing, and she left for the Forest Temple. We haven't seen her ever since," He said. I rolled my eyes.

"What she packing three swords and a shield?" I muttered under my breath. Mido didn't hear me, and I stood up, Link also stood and began making his way towards the Lost Woods. Mido saw this, and got in the hero's way.

"Wow! I said she didn't come back! What makes you think you'll be able to-"

"Mido, get out of the way. I'm going to save Saria," Link said. There was a hard edge to his voice. His eyes had a fire burning within them, and he clearly wasn't interested in waiting.

"No! You're not leaving us again! You've already broken the rules once, you won't do it again!" Mido shouted. Link grabbed him, and looked at the boy in the face. What I saw was not normal. There were tears in Link's eyes. Real, genuine tears.

"Mido. I want you to know that I've always considered all of you my friends, even if you gave me a hard time. But you need to understand that I've never broken the rules," Link began. The fire that I saw a few moments ago was still there, but it was hidden behind the emotions that were pouring out of him.

"There was a reason why I never had a fairy. It's because I'm not a Kokiri child," Link said. Mido looked at him, and shook his head.

"I don't understand," Mido said. Link whipped tears from his eyes.

"When I was trapped in the Temple of Time these past seven years, I met a man called Rauru. He told me everything about myself. He told me that I was never born in the Kokiri Forest, that I was actually a Hylian. I was brought to the forest by my dying mother, and the Deku Tree is the one who raised me. I didn't break the rules, and couldn't stay in the forest because I wasn't born in it," Link said. He continued after taking a breath.

"I really wanted to see all of you again. I wanted to tell you about everything that I have seen, everything that I have done. The creatures I've faced, the people I've helped. I wanted to have a story to tell you once I returned. That's why I want to save Saria, I want everyone to be here, waiting for me to tell them my story," Link said. I looked at the rest of the children, and they all looked shocked and moved by what Link told them. Mido finally stepped out of the way.

"Navi should know where to go. She'll lead you to the temple," Mido finally said. He added that all fairies knew the Temple's Location. We thanked him, and I put a hand on Mido's shoulder.

"We'll fix this. You won't need to fear going outside ever again," I said. Mido nodded, and Navi began leading the way. We left the village in silence, and were swallowed up by the Lost Woods a few moments later.

The walk through the woods was a treacherous one. The trees all looked the same, and sounds echoed around unnaturally. The sun's rays barely pierced the thick canopy, and everything felt wrong. I finally understood why they were called The Lost Woods. No one would every be able to find their way out of here.

I was momentarily separated from Link and Navi after I was distracted for a single moment by a sound that I heard. After a few moments of frantic searching, and stumbling through the woods, Link found me again and told me to hand on to his belt in order to avoid getting separated again. I began closing my eye as we walked. The repeating scenery was messing with me, and I knew that I could go insane looking at it. It also made me wonder what kind of will Link had. His eyes never closed, and he didn't seem the least bit bothered by what we were walking through.

We finally made it to the maze, and I've never been so happy to see anything else in my life. As soon as we reached it, I threw myself to the ground and almost kissed the walls for giving me something other than a creepy forest to look at.

"No wonder Ruto is mad at you, you're cheating on her with everything around you," Navi joked. She was trying to lift our spirits, and mildly succeeded with raising Link's. I quickly pushed myself away from the wall and shouted at her angrily.

After calming down, Link took a few steps towards the first corridor of the maze, and took a few steps back. His brow was furrowed, and he suddenly drew his weapons. Alarmed, I did the same.

"What is it?" I asked. Before anyone could answer, a pair of Salfos stepped out of the corridor, and raised their weapons. Their weapons belonged to Independent Knights, and I knew that they were the guys that went missing.

They looked at us menacingly, and one of them laughed.

"Lord Ganondorf wants the one of the right dead," One of them said. I almost groaned when I realized that they were talking about me. Of course, Ganondorf probably didn't know that Link was out of the Temple of Time yet. Either way, I would much rather his monsters focused on the Hero rather than me.

"Stalfos... This is going to be a problem," I said. Link titled his head towards me, but didn't take his eyes off of our opponents.

"Why?" He asked. I told him that no matter how many times I tried to kill them in the past, they would always put themselves back together. Link shook his head.

"Watch this," He said. He stepped forward, and the monsters charged him. Quickly, Link parried both of their strikes with his shield, and followed up with a brutal slash to the monsters necks. I saw a flash of light as his blade chopped off their heads, and to my amazement, the beasts did not start putting themselves back together.

Link turned towards me, and nodded. I walked up to the remains of the monsters, and shook my head. I didn't understand why they weren't coming back to life.

"How-" I began. My voice trailed off.

"The Master Sword is the Sword of Evil's Bane. No fowl creature can withstand its light," Link explained. The realization struck me, and I almost laughed.

"That would have made my life so much easier!" I said. Link chuckled, and I explained to him that in the past, I had to avoid Stalfos because I was unable to permanently kill them.

"Well, at least you have us now," Navi said. I nodded, and she began leading us through the maze. We walked in silence for a few moments. We could hear monsters moving throughout the maze, and avoided them. We didn't want to confront anything just in case it was something we couldn't handle. Because of this, our trip through the maze took longer than it should have, but we finally reached the entrance to the Forest Temple. To our dismay, however, the staircase that was leading up to the entrance was destroyed.

There was a large platform that was situated at the base of the former staircase. It had a very intricate symbol, and it reminded me of the floor in the temple of time. Link walked over to it, and passed his hand on it.

"I've seen this before," He said. I walked up next to him, and nodded.

"It's the same patters as on the floor at the Temple of Time. You know, the one in front of the pedestal for the Spiritual Stones," I replied.

"Correct," Someone said. The voice was a bit high-pitched, and because of the odd tone, it was impossible to tell if the speaker was male or female. Both Link and I jumped backwards, my hand was gripping the handle of my Nagamaki, and Link was ready to draw his sword as well. Link calmed down as soon as we saw who the speaker was. I was still a bit weary, until I remembered this character from the game.

"Sheik," Navi said. The disguised princess Zelda nodded to the fairy. I was reminded of the first day I came to Hyrule, when Zelda was pretending to be a normal girl in the castle market. This wasn't the first time she was wearing a disguise, but it was much better than her last one.

She was a bit different than the version I saw in the game. Along with her harp, she was also carrying a bow and a quiver. She also carried a short sword strapped to her hip, and a few knives that were on her belt. I couldn't really understand why she was carrying so many weapons on her, but I remembered that Ganondorf was the current ruler of the kingdom.

"Who the heck are you?" I asked. My hand left the Nagamaki, but I put on an act of caution. I knew that Zelda's identity had to remain secret. I could not show that I knew that she was standing right in front of us.

"It's ok Dante, she's a friend," Link said. I looked at Link and nodded.

"I'm honoured to meet the leader of the Independent Knights," Sheik said. I shrugged.

"I'm not much of a leader. The rest of the surviving members left me. I'm all that's left," I replied. Sheik shook her head.

"As long as there is still one member that is actively resisting Ganondorf's forces, your movement is still alive in my eyes," Sheik told me. Navi flew ahead and came to a pause in front of Sheik's face.

"Why are you here?" The Fairy asked.

"I'm here to warn you about what awaits you in the temple. I also want to give something to Link that will help him on his journey," Sheik said. She grabbed the bow and quiver, and handed the items over to Link.

"Thanks," Link said. Sheik nodded, and walked up to the hero. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Be careful when you enter that temple. Things will not always be what they seem," She said. Link nodded, letting her know that he was taking her warning seriously. With that, Sheik nodded, and took a few steps away from us. She told us good luck, and threw a type of flash bomb on the ground. When our sight returned, she was nowhere to be found.

"Well then. Looks like our cue to go," I said. I grabbed my Hookshot, and fired it at the undamaged part of the staircase. I was glad that I wasn't limited to very specific grappling points like I was in the game, it made using the Hookshot much easier.

As I was pulled to the entrance of the temple, Link did the same thing, and soon we were both entering the temple. Link grabbed the bow and notched an arrow. He didn't draw it, however, making the wise decision to save his strength for when he would actually need to fire it. I drew my Katana, since the interior of the temple was too tight for the use of the Nagamaki. I also put on my helmet, no sense going in without it.

As I have come to expect from the locations I have been visiting for the past couple of years, they didn't look like their in-game counterparts at all. The interior of the Forest Temple was completely overgrown, and there were many paintings that were hanging on each wall. What was also particularly odd about the locale, was that there were walkways and doors that were either going into the ceiling and walls. It made my head spin when I was taking it all in.

"Wow, where the heck to we even begin?" Link asked. I shrugged, and suggested that we should try entering the first door that we can reach. Link nodded, and we made our way down a hall.

As we made our way down this hall, Something felt off. Nothing was wrong with it at first glance, but there was this feeling of vertigo that began to overtake me as we walked through it. Eventually, I fell to my knees and took a few breaths. Link came to my side, and gasped when he looked at the space behind me.

"What is it?" I asked. I felt like I was carsick. Link turned me around, and pointed at the hall.

It was all twisted. Which was strange because it looked perfectly fine a few moments ago. Link was shaking his head, and told himself that this wasn't possible. I had to turn away, and groaned.

"I think I'm going to hurl," I said. Link grabbed me, and half dragged me through the rest of the hall. We sat outside of the door trying to let our stomachs settle. I began laughing a bit, and Link looked at me. He asked me why I was laughing.

"It's funny because we just got out of the Lost Woods, only to end up in the in-door equivalent of the same damn place," I said. I looked at the room we were in, and it looked nearly identical to the one we were in when we first got into the temple.

"This is so messed up," Link said. He got up, and began studying the walls. Navi also flew out into the room, and began staring at the paintings.

"Where do you think your girlfriend is?" I asked. Link didn't really react to the verbal jab, and shook his head.

"There has to be some kind of trick to navigating this place," He said. He walked passed a painting, and something caught my eye. I blinked a few times, but realized that it was nothing.

"I don't like this place," Navi said. She began flying back to us slowly. I began following Link. He walked out to the middle of the room, and began looking around.

"Why are there so many paintings?" He asked. I glanced around, and saw a painting of a Poe. I furrowed my brow as I remembered a puzzle from the game.

"Link, try firing an arrow at that painting over there," I said. Link looked at me, and hesitated.

"I only have about twenty arrows you know?" He asked. I nodded, and told him to fire at it anyway. The Hero quickly drew the bow, and fired. The arrow hit the painting dead centre, and to our amazement, it began burning away. The two of us cheered and ran towards the door that was hidden behind the canvas.

"How did you know about this?" Link asked. I looked at him and shook my head.

"I just guessed!" I replied. We opened the door, and stepped into the room. This time, we were in a room with stair cases that were upside down, and a doorway that was leading to a sort of courtyard. This room reminded me of something bad.

"Wait!" Navi exclaimed right before we set foot into the room. Link froze, and took a step back.

"What is it?" He asked. The fairy flew into the room, and came back an instant later. A large monster attempted to catch her, but she was too quick. After it missed her, it floated back up towards the ceiling. What struck me was the monster's shape. It was a large humanoid hand.

"Wallmasters. Careful, they'll strike when you least expect it," Navi said. Link looked at me, and I furrowed my brow.

"If they strike from above, we can hold our swords out, that way they'll impale themselves if they try to get us," I suggested. Link nodded, and put away the bow. He drew his Master Sword, and as soon as we entered the room, we both began pointing our weapons towards the ceiling.

As we began making our way towards the door, we would constantly glace up towards the ceiling. We could see a few of the monsters crawling on it, waiting for one of us to lower our weapon. When we made it to the door, I told Link to enter it first. I put myself between Link and the rest of the room, and did an extra effort to keep my blade pointed skyward. Link lowered his weapon, and walked through the door. As he did, I saw the Wallmasters get more excited. Link held out his arms, and told me that he would pull me through the door the instant I lowered my weapon.

"Ok, on three!" I said. I counted, and the instant I lowered my weapon, The Wallmasters all began charging me. Link pulled me through the door, and slammed it shut just before the monsters could get through. They bashed themselves against the door a few times, but gave up and left. I caught my breath, and stood up again.

We crossed through a few rooms, and every time we would cross a new painting, something about them would always rub me the wrong way. Eventually, as we were walking across a catwalk, I actually saw movement from a painting that Link was walking in front of, and reacted before any harm could befall my friend.

"Look out!" I shouted as I threw myself against Link. I tackled him to the ground just as a creature exited from the painting and swiped at us with a lance. As soon as we landed, Link and I both got on our feet as quickly as possible, and saw our attacker.

It looked like Ganondorf, only this one had a horned skull for a face, and the horse had fire for a mane and tail. I groaned, it was Phantom Gannon, the "boss" of the Forest Temple. He quickly retreated into another painting, barely allowing us time to counterattack. We caught our breath, and I finally walked up to the painting, and cut it down.

"There, he won't be coming at us from this one again." I said. Link nodded, and pulled out his bow and arrow. We kept a close eye on the other paintings, but nothing came at us. Navi flew around the room, and after a few tense moments, we finally left.

"Where could Saria be?" Link asked. I shrugged. I was completely lost, and none of the in-game knowledge of the temple was going to help us out in this situation. Every time we walked by a painting, either Link or myself would take it down and destroy is to prevent Phantom Gannon from attacking us.

We finally got to a sort of art gallery, where the walls were literally lined with paintings from ceiling to floor. Link's eyes went wide, and I cursed under my breath. Navi mentioned that if our attacker was smart, he would use this room to fight us. We both wished that she kept her mouth shut when said monster popped out of a painting and lunged at us.

He fired a sort of magical bolt at us. I leaped out of the way, and Link deflected it with his Master Sword. I switched to my Nagamaki and, and got back to back with the Hero of Time. We kept glancing at each painting, trying to figure out which one he would pop out from next.

"Any ideas?" I asked. Link nodded.

"I'll use my bow to destroy the higher paintings, you get the lower ones. If we can destroy all but one, that monster will only be able to come from one place to attack us," Link answered. I blinked, it was the first time Link suggested a plan to me, and it was brilliant.

We quickly got to work, and only paused to avoid attacks from our opponent. Although we nearly got hit a few times, Phantom Gannon had a very predictable attack pattern: Pop out of a random painting, attack, retreat through another painting, repeat.

It took us a while, but we finally destroyed all but one painting. I set myself up next to it, and raised the Nagamaki in order to kill the Phantom's horse. As soon as its head popped out of the painting, I was going to bring down the blade on the side of its neck, hopefully killing it. Link was standing in front of the painting, aiming his bow at it.

After a few moments, I saw the head of the horse. With lighting speed, I brought down the blade with a savage yell, and the horse was killed instantly. As its body tumbled out of the painting, Phantom Gannon glided out, and began floating in the air above us. Link fired an arrow, but the monster deflected it with its spear.

The monster began spinning its weapon, and fired another magical bolt at Link. The Hero reacted quickly, and pulled out his Master Sword to beat the projectile back towards the monster. As it flew back, Phantom Gannon hit it with his own weapon, and it went flying back towards Link.

The deadly tennis game went on for a few moments, before Phantom Gannon did something unexpected. When he deflected the projectile for the billionth time, he directed it towards me. As it sailed towards me, I readied myself, and slashed at it when it was in range. What happened next was incredibly painful and made me realize that the Master Sword was probably the only weapon that could deflect such projectiles.

The bolt exploded as I made contact with it, and electrocuted me. I screamed and fell to the ground. As I lied there, I twitched a few times because my nerves were all shot and sending way too many signals to my brain. I heard Phantom Gannon laugh, and felt someone grab me. I heard Link shout before losing consciousness.

When I woke up, I was lying on the ground, my helmet was removed, and an arrow was sticking out of my shoulder. I groaned when I tried to move my arm, and Looked at the wooden shaft to assess the damage. It was deep, and I was certain that the tip of it was piercing right through me. Link was sitting next to me, and was busy applying a bandage to my arm. He told me to stop moving, and assured me that I would live.

"What happened? Why is an arrow sticking out of me?" I asked. Link finished tying up the bandage, and helped me into a sitting position.

"Well, the creature picked you up after you were hit by that projectile. I didn't have a clear shot, and it was about to slit your throat. So I decided that wounding you in order to hit him was a better outcome than letting you die," Link explained. I blinked a few times, and grabbed at the arrow's shaft. I took a deep breath, and snapped it, leaving only a short bit of wood sticking out of me.

"You shot through me to hit him?" I asked. Link nodded.

"I didn't want to do it, but it was the only way to save you," He replied. I nodded, and began massaging my shoulder. As I stood up, Link got behind me, and snapped off the tip of the arrow. As we began making our way out of the room, A bright green light began to engulf it. We both turned around and saw a young girl standing in front of us. It was Saria, and she was the source of the light.

She looked up at us, and smiled. Link walked up to her, and stood in front of her. I slowly followed behind my friend, impaired by the pain I was feeling. The girl nodded at me, and began to speak.

"Thank you, both of you. Because of your efforts, the curse on the Temple and the forest has been lifted, and the Kokiri can once again return to normal," Saria said. Link scratched the back of his head, a short "don't mention it" escaped his lips. Saria's smile turned into a sad one, and she continued to speak.

"However, I cannot return to the village. When you broke the curse, I was awakened as the Sage of the Forest. I cannot stay in this world for much longer, but I will watch you from above, and aid you in your quest," Saria finished. Link looked surprised, and before she left, She gave him a green medallion.

Before anyone could say anything else, Saria vanished, and a white light overtook the room. After a few moments of blindness, We found ourselves standing in the middle of the Kokiri Village, and to our surprise, the children were all outside, looking around and cheering at the absence of monsters. Many of them gathered around us, and sang our praises.

It was hard explaining to them what happened to Saria. Many of them didn't quite understand the implications of her awakening as the sage, and we had to tell them that she had transformed into a sort of guardian for the forest. Mido was, understandably, upset about it. He didn't bother us about it, however, because Link was also pretty down about his childhood friend turning into a sort of demi-god.

We spent a few days in the forest. I had to take many potions to fix my shoulder, and the Paradox Key was still recharging from the last healing job it did. Not that it couldn't handle my shoulder, but I wanted to save the energy in case we really needed it.

The children were still having a hard time believing that their troubles were over. Every now and then, I would catch one cautiously making their way out of their house, before realizing that the monsters were all gone. Link also spent a lot of time sitting in front of the Great Deku Tree, and would return with a small smile on his face after speaking to its child. When my shoulder recovered, we gave our farewells to the children, and left the village with a fresh stock of food and medical supplies.

Epona had wandered off during our time away, but we found the war-horse grazing and waiting for our return outside of the forest. In order to call Epona, Link held his Ocarina to his lips, and played a song. We heard the horse long before it came into our sight. A few moments later, we were ready to leave.

As we trotted along the grass, A large column of smoke caught my eye. I pointed it out to Link, and we both decided to go and investigate. What we saw, sent a shiver down our spines.

It was an entire unit of Ganondorf's forces. There were many Lizafos, and Gerudo warriors that were making their way towards Lake Hylia. Both Link and I glanced at each other, unsure of what we should do. We looked back at the soldiers, and the source of the smoke was from a Darknut that was wielding a large torch-like weapon. I've never seen such a thing before.

"What do you think they are doing?" Link asked. My thoughts went back to the conversation I had with Mika before he escorted me out of Death Mountain. The Zoras were still resisting Ganondorf despite having been beaten and chased out of the Zora's Domain. If those soldiers were headed towards the lake, it meant that the Zoras were probably up to something.

As much as I wanted to avoid Ruto's inevitable wrath for not marrying her, I also knew that if we didn't do something, the Zoras would most likely end up getting wiped out. Plus, the Water Temple was located in Lake Hylia, which was much closer to our current location than Death Mountain was. The way I saw it, it was a win-win situation.

"We'll follow them, make sure they don't see us until we figure out what they want," I replied. Link looked at me.

"What about the temples?" He asked. I looked at him.

"If there was a temple in the Kokiri Forest, I'm sure that the Zoras will also have one of their own," I answered. Link nodded after a moment of silence, and we both began following the soldiers. I prayed that they wouldn't cause too much trouble for the Zoras.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Water Temple

**I may be pushing the T rating a tiny bit with this chapter, but I don't think anything too bad happens here. Once again, it's a first draft so it's rough around the edges.**

We followed the soldiers to the Lake. It was a longer journey than it should have been, but we had to make sure that we were staying far away from them in order to avoid getting seen. Navi would usually scout ahead and update us on what they were doing. When we were getting close to the lake, Navi gave us to alarming news.

"There is a large group of Zoras that have gathered at the lake. They're setting up some fortifications and preparing to fight," Navi said. My eyes went wide, and Link didn't look happy about the news either. We looked at each other, unsure of what to do next.

"Well Dante? What's the plan?" Link finally asked. I told Navi to go and check on what was happening again, and I told Link that we would charge the soldiers from behind as soon as the battle started. Link didn't like the plan, but he understood that it was the only way we would survive the battle. It took a while, but Navi finally returned with the announcement that we were waiting for. Without a moment's hesitation, we spurred our horses into action, and charged. It took a short while for the armies to come into view, but when we finally saw them, I began pushing my horse even harder, and put on my helmet.

The Zoras had built a sort of short wall at the edge of the partially drained Lake Hylia. It looked like it was made of coral, and they were doing a fairly good job of keeping Ganondorf's forces outside of the lake. Still, they would be overrun eventually.

Link readied his bow, and fired as soon as we were in range. The arrow sailed through the air, and hit a Lizafoe right in the back of the head. It fell instantly, and Link was already following up with another projectile. I drew the Nagamaki, and put on my helmet. I let out a cry, and when I met the surprised forces, I swung the sword, holding the handle near the base in order to give my attacks extra range.

Ganondorf's forces were confused, but reoriented themselves quickly. Link and I were forced to temporarily retreat, and had to abandon our horses in order to prevent them from suffering any serious injuries. When we met Ganondorf's forces on foot, a group of Zora warriors left the safety of their fortifications in order to help us reach them. They wore bone armour, and used strange spear-like bone weapons. They met us, and we fought our way back to the rest of the Zoras. I could hear a lot of shouting, and a woman's voice was directing the Zoras.

When we made it, one of our escorts was hit by an arrow. The projectile was stuck in his leg, and he wasn't going to be able to make it to safety without help. I told Link to cover me, and Grabbed our wounded comrade. As I helped him limp to safety, I recognized him.

"Thanks Dante," He said. It was Mika. Of course it was him. He was the only Zora who knew what I looked like in my armour. He was probably the one who ordered the small group to help us.

"Don't mention it, We're here to help," I said. Mika nodded, and I made him sit against a coral fortification. Mika asked for a bow, and refused help when he stood himself up. He told me that he would keep fighting until Ganondorf's forces either retreated or were defeated. I nodded at him, and continued fighting with the Zoras. As time went on, I kept shooting glances at the Darknut. It didn't really involve itself in the fight, and instead directed his troops from a distance. Despite our vailant efforts to push back the attackers, they were beginning to overtake us. I cursed, and tried to find Link.

"Link! Link! We need to kill that Darknut!" I said. Link finished his opponent, and looked at me. He asked me what I said, and I repeated myself.

"That's crazy! There are too many of them between us and him!" Navi said. I shook my head.

"We have no choice. If we kill him, the enemy's morale will crumble," I said. I explained to them that when the old leader of the Independent Knights was slain, their morale plummeted until I took the position of leader. After a few moments, Link finally agreed to the plan.

"We'll need an escort, there is no way we'll make it there on our own," Link finally said. I nodded, and told him that I would find the Zora leader. I made my way through our ranks, killing or wounding the occasional monster that would break into the defence line. I asked around for directions in reaching the one in charge, and almost froze in fright when I heard who it was.

"Queen Ruto is fighting on the other side of the fortifications, you'll find her surrounded by her personal guard. You can't miss her," The soldier said. I stood there dumbly for a few moments, before shaking my head and making my way towards the other end of the battlefield.

"I hope to god she doesn't recognize me," I muttered. I finally made it after a few minutes, and found a group of elaborately armoured Zoras surrounding a very particular one. She wore an exquisite set of bone armour, and an armoured skirt reminiscent of those worn by Greek soldiers was protecting her thighs. She wielded a long pole weapon with a large blade at the end.

One of her rear guards fell, but she was too busy taking care of a Lizafoe that was keeping her eyes glued to the front. I quickly sprinted up to the group, and just as Ruto took care of her opponent, I stabbed the other one that was coming up behind her. The queen turned to face me, and readied her weapon.

"Is that how you say thanks for saving my life?" I asked. I pulled my weapon out of the monster's corpse and got ready to face any new ones that would try to target us. Ruto turned towards the enemy, and responded in her usual proud manner.

"I didn't need any help," She said.

"Clearly," I responded. We fought side by side, and when we caught a short break, She got a better look at me.

"Aren't you the leader of the Independent Knights?" She asked me. I shook my head.

"Was the leader, the group was destroyed a while ago. I'm all that's left," I replied. Ruto looked away and barked a few orders to her troops, she then turned back to me.

"Look, I appreciate the help, but this is our fight," She said. I rolled my eye in my helmet, and shook my head.

"You're outnumbered and you're refusing help. I don't want to be the one to point out how stupid that is," I replied. Ruto frowned at me, she clearly wasn't enjoying my company.

"What do you want?" She finally asked.

"I need a group of your soldiers to be placed under my command. If we're going to win this, we need to take out that Darknut to break their morale," I responded. Ruto looked at the Darknut, and nodded.

"Archers! Target the Darknut!" She shouted. A unanimous "Yes" resonated amongst the ranks of the archers, and soon a volley of arrows was flying through the air towards the target.

Sadly, the Darknut's armour was too thick. His horse was taken down by the arrows, but the actual monster simply stood up again, and began making his way towards the battle. I figured that he got ticked off by the short acupuncture session.

"Ruto! I need those soldiers now!" I shouted. She glanced at me. She tried asking me a question, but cut herself off. Finally, she assigned a small team of Zoras to me, and I led them back towards Link.

Once we were all together, We charged our way out of the fortifications near the edge of the battle. There wasn't much resistance there, and it was the safest route to reach the Darknut. A few of the Zoras fell, and we weren't able to help them because of our position. We kept on going, until we finally came face to face with the monster.

It's flaming weapon was pointed towards us, and it menacingly began to step towards us. Link and I both got ready to fight, and we exchanged a few battle strategies before engaging the Darknut.

"So, the arrows barely hurt him?" Link asked. I nodded.

"His armour is thick, our swords will barely be able to hurt him unless we target his joints," I replied.

"I could try to use my pommel on his helm," Link added. I nodded, but told him that it would be a risky move.

The Darknut finally lunged at us, and we both dived on either side of him. I had to switch over to the Katana, because I needed a more manoeuvrable blade for this battle. The Zoras that were escorting us began defending us while we fought the Darknut.

The Monster began swinging his large weapon horizontally, forcing us to back away from him. Luckily, he wasn't able to focus on the two of us at the same time, but it was still hard to get close. Navi eventually got the brilliant idea to fly right in his face and blind him, and as the Darknut began swatting at her, Link got in close and stabbed him in the back of the knee.

The monster fell to the ground, and allowed me to move in close to stab at his elbow, forcing him to drop his weapon. Link quickly climbed on his back, and stabbed the monster in the neck, ending its life. It didn't take long for Ganondorf's monsters to realize that their leader was dead, and disorder quickly spread like wildfire throughout their ranks.

It didn't take long for the Zoras to route them, and soon the Lake was clear of all monsters. I collapsed to the ground, panting and recovering from the fight. Link did the same, and patted my shoulder. The Zoras were all busy cheering, and they quickly got to work tending to the wounded, while also creating graves for the departed. I took off my helmet, and took a deep breath of fresh air.

"I'm so glad we won," Link said. I nodded, and told him that I wished he was with me while I fought that Darknut in Lon Lon Ranch. Link laughed, and told me that he did not want to fight another one of those things for a long time.

Ruto and her remaining guards all began making their way to us. When I noticed them, I quickly put the helmet back on, and stood up straight. Link also stood up next to me, and bowed to the royal Zora. She looked at us, and pointed at me.

"I should have you disciplined for talking to me like that during the battle," She said. I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly.

"We just saved you lives," I replied. Link glanced at me, wondering why I was being so rude with her. Truth be told, I didn't really know why either.

"And that is why I won't. I wanted to thank you guys for helping us win this fight," She replied. Link nodded, and told her that I was the one who suggested we come help.

"Why are the Zoras in Lake Hylia again anyway? I thought Ganondorf chased you all out of Hyrule," Navi asked. Ruto looked at Navi for a few seconds too long, before answering her question.

"We've decided to return, and retake our home. We know that if we break the curse on the Water Temple, we will be able to have our home back," She replied. She looked at Navi, then back at Link.

"Are you two called Link and Navi by any chance?" She asked them. Link nodded, and Ruto immediately turned to me. Her eyes were furious.

She stared me down for a few moments, and I finally removed my helmet. It was hard to keep eye contact with her, she seriously looked mad with a capital M.

"Look, Ruto I ca-" I began. Her hand quickly slammed against my cheek, and I found myself looking off to the right. My face was seriously hurting, and Ruto didn't seem the least bit satisfied.

"I should have you imprisoned for what you did to me!" She shouted. Link and Navi glanced at each other, and her personal guard began backing away from her.

"Look, it's not what it-"

"You promised me! You said that when we both came of age you would return!" She exclaimed. She wasn't crying, but it was clear that she was hurt by my absence. I didn't know how to patch things up with her, but I tried to reason with her.

"Ruto, Ganondorf coming to power and forcing his rule on the land. I think that that is a bit more serious than our promise," I said. The look she gave me made it clear that I said the wrong thing.

"What!? Are you saying that you didn't even try to spare any time for me?" She shouted. Oh boy, I was in for it now. Link leaned over to one of the guards, and asked him a question. The guard quietly whispered back to him. Link's eyes lit up, and a small encouraging smile crept on his lips.

"Ruto! Are you serious? I was in charge of the Independent Knights, and we were losing men left and right! Hell, I almost died a bunch of times!" I answered. I was grasping at straws, anything to make her less mad at me. Sadly, my words weren't having the desired effect, and she slapped me again.

"Ouch!" I shouted.

"You deserve a lot more than that!" Ruto growled.

"Ruto! I still love you, and I'm here now. I was worried about you when I saw all those soldiers heading for Lake Hylia," I replied. Ruto faltered a bit, and looked away.

"Really?" She asked. Was she seriously asking me that question.

"Yes, really! We're also going to help you lift the curse on Zora's Domain. That's the other reason we came here," I said. Ruto seemed to soften up a bit.

"Dante I-" She began. I thought that she was going to forgive me, but I was sorely mistaken.

"I'm still not forgiving you for skipping out on our big day!" She finished. All traces of possible forgiveness vanished from her face as she pointed an accusing finger in my direction. She began walking towards the lake again, and didn't even bother to make sure if I was following or not.

I stood there, and blinked a few times. My cheek was still stinging, and Link slowly made his way to my side. He put a hand on my shoulder, and took a slight breath before talking.

"So... You were supposed to get ma-" Link began.

"Mention it again and I will end you," I interrupted. Link shut his mouth and nodded skeptically. He knew I wouldn't realistically be able to do anything to him.

We began walking towards the shore, Ruto was barking orders to a few Zoras who immediately began repairing the fortifications as soon as she finished talking. She also sent a few scouts in order to see if any more of Ganondorf's troops were coming our way. I honestly had to say that I admired the woman she ended up becoming, even if she was mad at me for no reason.

"We need people to stay on guard in case Ganondorf's troops return. I need as much time as possible in order to break the temple's curse!" Ruto shouted. Link and I jogged up to her side.

"Hey! We just told you that we were going to do that!" I said. Ruto looked at me, and then looked away with a small "Hmpf!".

"My original intention for coming here was to lift the curse. I am glad to hear that the two of you were already going to do it, but I'm not sure either of you can breath underwater," Ruto said. I paused. She had a good point, and I doubted that the interior of the temple was anything like the in-game version.

"What about Dante's scale? Wouldn't that help him?" Link asked. Ruto looked at him, and shook her head.

"If by help you mean allow him to drown later rather than sooner, then yes, it will help," She said. Ouch.

"You're telling us that there is literally no air down there?" I asked. Ruto shook her head.

"No, there are a few chambers that aren't submerged in water, but they are far and few in between. You'll be lucky if you reach the first one," She said. She called out to a few Zoras, and had them bring forth a small container.

"Now that problem could easily be avoided with these garments that I was planning on giving to you for our wedding... But since you ran out on me... Here you go Link!" Ruto said. Link's face was blank, and my jaw almost unhinged.

"WHAT!?" I shouted. Ruto stuck her tongue out at me, and pulled out the tunic from the container. She handed it to Link, who was still just as shocked as I was.

"It's what you get for breaking my heart," She said. Link looked at the garments, then back at me.

"You better-" I began.

"If you give them to Dante I will have you executed," Ruto said. It might have been a joke, but neither of us wanted to risk it.

Link walked away from us and got changed, while I argued with Ruto about how unfair it was that she was giving away my wedding gift to another guy. She seemed amused by my whining, and kept telling me that if I just showed up for the wedding, then the whole situation could have been avoided.

When Link returned, I saw that the garments that he now wore had a lot more in common with the Zora Armour from Twilight Princess than it did with the Zora Tunic from the original Ocarina of Time game. The fabric seemed to be made entirely of Silver Scales, and there were many intricate fins and extra bits to the costume. I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous.

"What will these clothes do exactly?" Link asked after returning to us.

"They'll allow you to breath underwater like us. They were intended to allow Dante to live with me more comfortably than he otherwise would have been able to," Ruto said. She was still making sure to mention the botched wedding at every opportunity she had.

"Uhh, thanks?" Link asked rather than said. Navi didn't seem to be sure what to think of the gesture either. But she eventually asked Ruto about me.

"What about Dante?" Ruto asked.

"How will he be able to enter the temple?" Navi asked. Ruto laughed out loud.

"How? I don't expect him to enter with us. I don't want to have anything more to do with him!" Ruto said. She was being unreasonably harsh. I could feel my soul getting crushed every time she opened her mouth/ I was actually wishing that I remembered to show up for the wedding.

"If Dante doesn't go I won't go," Link said. I could almost see his mind at work. He was hatching a plan.

"Well that's fine. I'll go alone in that case," Ruto said. She began turning around to leave, and Link coughed.

"That would be fine, but Dante and I have already broken the curse on the temple in Kokiri Forest. Believe me when I say that Ganondorf did not leave it undefended," Link replied. Ruto was staring at him. When she didn't say anything, he continued to speak.

"There were many monsters in the Forest Temple. Dante and I had a hard time getting through it. Neither of us would have been able to make it through alive on our own. Since the two of us understand these curses better than you do, it would be in your best interest to take us with you," Link continued. Ruto considered this for a moment, and her cheeks slightly changed colour when she looked at me. She got a bit flustered when she spoke again.

"Oh, fine! Dante can come, but..." Her voice trailed off. I took a step towards her.

"Yes?" I asked. Ruto looked up at me, and shook her head.

"Don't misunderstand ok!?" She almost shouted. She reached on her neck, and plucked a scale from it. I realized what she was doing, and tilted my head up for her. She jammed the scale on the side of my neck, right next to the older one.

"Why are you giving him an extra scale?" Navi asked. Ruto, still flustered, explained.

"Why? I-it's because royal Zora scales are more powerful than standard ones. It'll boost his ability to hold his breath and allow him to survive down there..." Ruto said. Link leaned towards Navi.

"She still likes him," He whispered.

"Yeah, I know," Navi whispered back. I was glad Ruto didn't hear it.

We began making our way to the edge of the lake, and made a few final preperations. I had to strip off all of my armour and settle for the clothes I wore beneath, because I could not afford to be weighed down too much while we were in the temple. Likewise, Ruto stripped off her own armour as well, and shouted at me when I watched her. Link didn't really need to make any changes, since he was already pretty much ready to go.

After a few last words with her followers, Ruto turned towards the water. Link was standing on her left, and I was standing on her right. She was about to dive in, but paused. I didn't catch her pause until it was too late. By that time, most of my weight was leaning forward, and I fell flat on my stomach, splashing water everywhere. I quickly got back up and glared at Ruto.

"What the heck!?" I asked. She kept on looking at me.

"Don't you dare try getting alone with me this time," She warned me. She was blushing a bit, and I rolled my eyes.

"Who cares? Let's just go!" I said. Link laughed a bit, and dived into the lake after Ruto did. I paused for a moment, and waved at the Zoras. Strangely enough, a few of them shouted a few encouraging words in my direction.

"You'll win her back!"

"Don't worry, she still thinks about you all the time!"

I dived before hearing more than that. I swam as quickly as I could, trying to keep up with Ruto and Link. The Hero of Time was a surprisingly good swimmer, but then again, his natural talent for doing pretty much anything should not be surprising to me anymore.

We entered the Temple, and Ruto quickly led us down a few corridors. I wasn't feeling that badly, and noticed that If I was only armed with the one zora scale, I would probably be trying to refill my lungs at this point.

Ruto led us to a smaller chamber, and pointed me to the ceiling. The water didn't completely submerge the room, and there was a few centimetres between the surface and the ceiling. I exhaled, and took a deep breath, before continuing on.

The interior of this temple wasn't quite as creepy as that of the Forest Temple, but there was something about it that was rubbing me the wrong way. I wasn't able to put my finger on it. I think that the water felt a bit wrong, and the hallways all looked the same. Before I knew it, I had separated from my companions, and was aimlessly swimming through empty hallways. My lungs were feeling a bit painful, and I began to desperately search for any air supply that I could.

When I felt like I was about to explode, I finally made it to a room with a large central structure. The structured stretched extremely high, and the water level in this room wasn't absurd. As soon as I broke the surface, I gasped for air, and pulled myself onto a part of the structure.

The tower had many protrusions that I guessed were balconies. There was a door leading into the interior at the base, under the water, and another door that was near the top, which was several levels above me. I vaguely remembered this as the central room of the temple in the video game, and decided to look around.

There were many doors along the walls. I figured that I'd have more luck exploring the ones that were above the water's level, rather than the ones below it. I took out my hook shot, and fired it off at the nearest door. After anchoring myself to the wall, I opened it, and stepped through. It led to a corridor that was angled downwards, and much to my own chagrin, it was submerged. I sighed loudly, and took a deep breath again.

I soon found myself in another chamber, but this time I wasn't alone. As soon as I made it in, these clam-like creatures all began moving towards me, snapping their shells open and closed repeatedly. I drew my Katana, seeing as it would be easier to use in these conditions than the Nagamaki. Unfortunately, the water really made it hard to swing with any sort of decent force, and so I was quickly overwhelmed.

I had clams biting onto my arms, the blade of my weapon, and my feet. They didn't break my skin, but their jaws began to crush with a lot of force. I had to get them off of me before I either drowned or had my bones crushed.

I tried to pry open the jaws of one of the monsters, but it held on. I was being weighed down by them, and began to slowly try and walk back to the surface of the water. When they sensed the movement, they began dragging me back towards the deeper parts of the water. I cursed in my head, and continued to struggle.

They never let go of me, and I grew more and more desperate. My lungs were burning, and I cursed Ruto for not giving me that tunic. Everything seemed lost, before someone began spreading a salt-like substance throughout the water. Whatever it was, it was harming the clams, and the began swimming away. I was dragged further into the room, and pulled through a door. I heard water rush, and my head broke the surface. I began gasping for air again, and fell to my hands and knees.

"What the heck? This room wasn't here before!" I heard a girl say. It was Ruto. Of course it was her. She was busy putting away a small pouch that had a bit of dust leaking out of it. I figured it was what she used to chase off the clams.

I gasped for air, and quickly began looking around. We were in a very curious room. There was a thick white fog that heavily obscured my vision, but I could faintly make out a single tree in the centre of the room. I recognized this room as the one where you fight Dark Link.

I cautiously got up, and readied my blade again. Ruto walked up to me, and grabbed my wrists, making me lower my weapon.

"Put that away, we're safe for now," She said. I reluctantly nodded, and sheathed it. She began walking towards the tree, and looked back at me.

"Well are you coming?" She asked. I nodded, and followed closely behind.

"I can't believe you separated from us so quickly," She scolded me. I shrugged.

"I don't know what happened, one moment you guys were there, the next I was alone," I replied. She looked at me, raising an eyebrow.

"Is that true?" She asked me.

"Yes, I wouldn't have gone off on my own if it meant there was a very real risk of me drowning," I replied. Ruto thought for a moment, and nodded.

"Yes, the temple's layout seems a bit off," She responded. I looked around again, and asked her where Link was.

"We split up looking for you," She replied. She walked to the end of the room, and cursed when there was no door there.

We backtracked to the door we came in from, but were shocked to see that it had vanished. Ruto was beginning to worry.

"What's going on?" She asked. I shrugged, and said that it must be the work of Ganondorf's curse.

"Keep searching the room, we'll find a door eventually," I said. Ruto nodded, and we both began searching frantically. I avoided the tree as much as I could, because I did not want to trigger an encounter with a dark version of myself. But after walking close to it in search for a door that could be situated on the floor, I realized that nothing would come at me from it.

I ended up sitting at the tree, trying to figure out what was going on. Ruto eventually sat down next to me with a frustrated sigh. We remained quiet for a few moments, before awkwardly trying to speak at the same time.

"Sorry," I said. Ruto sighed again, and began talking.

"I can't find a door anywhere," She said. I nodded.

"Neither can I. I thought that there might have been one in the floor," I answered. Ruto laughed.

"Who puts a door on the floor?" She asked. I shrugged, and told her that it was as possible as a room with no doors. Another awkward silence passed between us.

"Look, I'm sorry about-" I began.

"Don't say it. Please," She interrupted. She was still hurt about it.

"Ruto. I still love you. Tell you what? After we lift this curse, We'll get married ok?" I suggested. She remained quiet for a few moments.

"Do you swear on it?" She asked. I nodded.

"You can have me arrested, beaten, executed, you name it if I don't follow through with it," I answered. Ruto smiled a bit.

"Good," She said. I looked down, and noticed that we were holding hands. Funny how I never realized until now.

"Sorry for being mean to you earlier," She finally said. I shrugged.

"I'm not that mad about it anymore," I answered honestly. If things were good between us now, nothing else really mattered. I turned to look at her, and saw her looking at me.

"I knew you still liked me," I said. Our faces were moving closer, and our lips finally met.

The kiss was passionate. We staid like that for a long time. Next thing I knew, we were holding each other very closely, and still kissing each other. Nothing else seemed to matter, and the whole "Lift the curse on the temple" mission completely vanished from my thoughts. I wanted to spend time with Ruto and I wanted to let her know that I really did care for her...

We resumed our search of the room in a silence so awkward it could have drowned out the sound of an atomic explosion. Ruto was still blushing, and we both had a lot of trouble looking at each other. Whenever we would come across each other through the fog, we would quickly apologize to each other, and move away as quickly as possible.

I kept mentally calling myself names. Shaming myself and wondering if Ruto still liked me. I wanted to ask her, but I feared she would take it the wrong way. The next worry was about what Link would think if he found out. My foot touched something, and I saw a doorknob that was under the shallow surface of the water.

"Ruto, uhmm... I found a door," I said. She walked up to me, and looked at it. We both opened the door, and looked at each other. We maintained eye contact for a few moments, and looked away from each other.

"Y-you go in first," Ruto said. I shook my head.

"No! By a-all means, l-ladies first!" I said too loudly. I was stuttering like an idiot, and making a fool out of myself. My cheeks felt like they were on fire.

We remained silent, and looked at each other again.

"We don't say a word of this to Link," I said quickly. Ruto nodded.

"Agreed!" She said. As soon as she finished, Link surfaced from the door, and pulled himself out of the water. Ruto jumped back in surprise, and I fell flat on my back with a frightened scream.

"Tell me what?" Link asked after he stood up. He looked genuinely curious. Ruto and I picked ourselves off the ground, and shook our heads quickly. We were both blushing so much that it was impossible that Link wouldn't suspect anything.

"Nothing!" We both said. Link skeptically nodded. And Navi flew out into the room.

"What is this place?" She asked. Ruto coughed, and shrugged. She was trying to not look embarrassed, but she was failing in every possible way.

"We don't know. Dante and I entered from a door over there, but it disappeared soon after. We've been stuck in here a while," Ruto said. She was looking at the floor when she said the last part, and I was silently begging her to stop talking.

"Yeah, uhh... I think that tree is important, but I couldn't figure anything out," I answered. Link began making his way towards it, and a dark shadow burst forth from the tree. I was actually thankful that Dark Link appeared, it meant that attention would be taken away from Ruto and myself. Sure, it was a bit cruel to think that, but honestly, the embarrassment that I was feeling was so intense that it was actually painful.

Link quickly jumped backwards and drew his weapons. He glanced at me for a split second before blocking a strike. He tried to hack at his shadow-self, but the monster blocked the swing. They squared off against each other, and attacked each other again. Link tried to stab at it, but incredibly, the shadow jumped onto Link's sword. Before it could retaliate, Link dropped the master sword, causing the creature to fall over.

Link tried to kick Dark Link, but the monster rolled away. Before it got up again, the Hero of Time retrieved his weapon, and got in his fighting stance again.

"Dante, I'm gonna need help!" He shouted. I was watching the fight dumbly, before realizing what he said. I drew the Nagamaki, and stood next to Link. We glanced at each other.

"Plan?" I asked. Link shrugged. Navi was the one to speak.

"It seems to be a copy of Link. It seems to fight the same way that he does," Navi said. I nodded.

"That's a problem," I said. Dark Link pulled out a hook shot, and we barely had enough time to avoid the projectile. What I didn't expect was for Dark Link to swing the chain of the hook shot like a whip, and have it wrap around my leg. The chain reeled in, tripping me.

I landed on my back, and saw Dark Link leaping towards me. Link managed to reach me on time, and threw himself against the monster. They tumbled away in a tangle of limbs and weapons, before separating and struggling to find their footing as quickly as possible. Once they were standing, they began swinging at each other savagely, neither one of them could penetrate the other's defences. I remembered that this fight was very tough when trying to do it with the Master Sword in the game, but it was easy when using a different weapon. An idea popped into my head.

"Link! Catch!" I shouted. I threw the Nagamaki towards Link, who expertly caught it. He put away the Master Sword, and a determined smile formed on his lips. He understood my plan.

With lightning speed, Link began attacking Dark Link. He kept adjusting his grip on the Nagamaki, taking advantage of the long handle in order to strike from a variety of ranges. Because this was a weapon Dark Link was used to, he was quickly forced on the defensive. Link eventually caught Dark Link's right leg, and tripped up the creature. Without delay, he quickly stabbed the Nagamaki into the monster's chest, ending the battle. Link panted for a few moments, and both the fog and Dark Link began to evaporate. The door that Link entered the room from also vanished, and two new doors appears at each end of the room.

The tree was also gone, and my eyes were drawn to one of the new doors. Link walked up to me, and returned my weapon. I nodded at him, and congratulated him on his victory. Ruto was the first to reach the door. She didn't open it, but studied it carefully.

"I've never seen this door before," She said. Link and I reached it. I was about to open it, but I froze. Something was very familiar with this whole scene.

"Dante look out!" Ruto shouted. She shoved me away from the, and a large watery tentacle smashed through it. It grabbed Ruto, and retreated through the doorway. I sat up, and stared in complete shock at the door.

"Déjà vu," I muttered. Ruto's screams could be heard coming from the next room. Link looked from the door, and back to me.

"Doesn't this remind you of-" He began. I nodded and told him to hurry up. We hurried through the door, and found ourselves in a large room. In it, there was a pool of incredibly viscous water. Out of it, a single tentacle that was seemingly made from the same liquid was sprouting from it, and brandishing Ruto overhead.

Link readied himself, and glanced at me. I knew this boss fight in and out. I was going to finish it in two seconds. I pulled out my hook shot, and aimed it at the water.

"What are you doing?" Link asked. I pointed, and he saw what I was aiming at. In the water, there was a purple brain-like creature that was swimming around in it. Link nodded at me, and gave me the ok to launch the hook.

What I didn't expect was what happened next. The creature avoided the shot, and the hook burrowed itself into the bottom of the pool. A split second before it began reeling itself in, I managed to let out a single curse word: Crap.

Immediately, I was pulled into the water at a speed comparable to that of an arrow fired from a bow. As soon as I entered, I felt the fluid shift and change. It un-anchored my hook, and I was quickly lifted into the air. The monster swung me around for a bit, before throwing me against one of the hard walls. I slammed against it with a lot of force, and felt the wind get knocked right out of my lungs. Worse, instead of letting me fall, the monster picked me up again, and held me upside down over the pool.

Link was busy firing arrows from his bow into the pool. He saw what happened to me when I attempted to kill the creature with my hook shot, and decided to do things a bit more safely than I did. He nearly hit it a couple of times, but the monster kept on avoiding his attacks. Still, his aim was getting better and better as he began getting a feel for its dodging tendencies.

Me? I got over my daze, and began reaching out for Ruto. The creature roughed her up as well, and she didn't look like she was in good shape. When I was swung around again, I managed to grab her by the wrist, and pulled her towards me. She grabbed onto me, and didn't let go.

"Got you!" I said. I was slammed against another wall, and my body prevented the hit from hurting Ruto too much.

"Dante, my pouch!" She said. I didn't hear her, and instead looked at her.

"This brings me back," I said. I was trying to make the situation seem a bit less serious than it actually was, We were slammed against the wall again and I had to stop talking.

"Dante! My pouch! Grab it!" Ruto shouted in my face. I shook my head, and reached for her hip. I didn't find it, and after feeling around for a bit, Ruto's flustered face turned away from mine.

"Stop touching me like that! It's on the other hip!" She exclaimed. I quickly reached for her other hip, and grabbed the pouch.

"Empty it in the water!" She said. I nodded, and turned the pouch upside down. The salt, or whatever it was the dust was, poured into the water. After a few moments, the tentacle froze, and immediately disintegrated. We were dropped on top of Link, who was trying to line up a shot with his bow.

We all got up again as quickly as we could, and looked into the pool. There was a loud screech, and suddenly many smaller tentacles burst out of the water's surface. They all grabbed for us, and I didn't manage to get our of the way on time. I was dragged into the pool again, and I felt both my Nagamaki and Katana get taken away from me. I was lifted out of the water, and saw both of my blades aiming up at me. It was going to drop me on them.

Link managed to get his lade arrow off just on time. We heard another loud screech, and the tentacles that were holding me and the swords disappeared. What sucked about it, was that the Nagamaki didn't quite fall as quickly as the Katana.

My landing was quite painful. Not only did the blade stab me through the left side of my stomach, but when I fell into the water, I was completely disoriented, and in too much pain to be able to swim myself out. I felt a pair of hands grab me, and I was pulled out by Link and Ruto.

"Oh goddness! Dante!" Ruto shouted. She was crouching over me, and her eyes were darting back and forth between my face and the blade that was sticking out of me. Link quickly began digging through my backpack for any medical supplies that I could have been carrying. I spat out a bit of blood on the floor.

"Ouch," Was all I said before trying to get in a sitting position. I looked at the damage. The bad news was that the blade stabbed through me all the way up to the hand guard. Good news was that no one was trying to pull it out of me, meaning it would take longer for me to bleed to death.

"Ruto get out of the way," Link said. The girl moved, but she refused to let go of me. The sudden movement made me groan in pain.

I reached for the Paradox Key, but realized that if I pulled out the blade and it didn't have enough energy to heal me, I would be in serious trouble. I cursed, and put the cube away. Link grabbed some bandages, and began tying them around my waist, making sure to secure the blade in place. We both knew that pulling it out now would be dangerous.

"Oh no, Dante, please don't die," Ruto said. She was squeezing my hand a bit too tightly, but I didn't say anything about it. My mind was mostly blank.

Everything was a bit of a blur after that. My vision began failing me, and I began to lose consciousness. I saw a blue light, and felt Ruto's hand on my cheek.

"I'm going to save you," Was the last thing I heard before I felt her lips gently press against mine.

I woke up on the shore of Lake Hylia. The bloody Nagamaki was lying next to me, and Link was busy removing the bandages from my abdomen. He was shaking his head in disbelief.

"She actually did it!" He said. I slowly sat up, and a massive headache made me groan and put my face in my hands.

"What happened?" I asked. I felt my gut, and felt a new scar. The Zoras were gathered around us, and had already gathered my armour for me. Link told me that Ruto, after awakening as the sage of water, used her powers to heal me and send us back to Lake Hylia. I raised an eyebrow.

"Sages can do that?" I asked. Link shrugged.

"I guess so," He said. I nodded, and Link helped me stand. I asked the Zoras if they heard the story before I woke up, and they all nodded.

"Link! Don't forget the rest!" Navi exclaimed. Link thought for a moment, and nodded.

"Right! Ruto wanted me to give this to you," He said. He grabbed a blue medallion and handed it to me. It was the medallion of water.

"She said it's no Spiritual Stone, but it should be good enough as proof of your wedding," He said. I thanked him, and put the medallion away in my backpack.

"The rest. Tell him the rest," Navi said. We began to grab my armor, and put it away in the backpack.

"Oh.. uhmm, yeah," Link said. He scratched the back of his head.

"What?" I asked.

"She gave me a long list of things she wants you to do from now on," Link explained. I sighed, and listened.

"First, she wants you to send a little prayer her way every night. Hopefully she'll be able to appear to you if Rauru allows it. Second, She says that you cannot see any other girls. Just because she's a sage does not mean you're not married to her. Third, She says that you need to work on your technique... I don't know what she meant by that but-" Link said.

"Stop," I interrupted him.

"What?" He asked.

"Just... I thought she agreed to never mention that to you," I said. I realized I said it out loud.

"Mention what?" Link asked. I clamped my mouth shut. My cheeks were burning, and I began stomping away. The Zoras, who all understood what was going on, were all laughing, which didn't help. Link followed me.

"Did something happen between you two?" The Hero asked.

"I'm heading to Death Mountain," I said. I completely ignored his question, and made my way towards our horses. Link's brow was furrowed, and Navi began whispering in his ear. After she finished, a devious smile spread on his lips.

"Don't tell me-" He began.

"ARGH!" I shouted. I covered my ears and began running towards the horses. Link laughed out loud and began chasing me, teasing me and trying to get the story from me. I knew that the next couple of weeks were going to be torturous.


End file.
